It's rare for a movie to establish its tone in such an instantaneous fashion, but as soon as the music kicks in during the opening shot of Gemini, the film's path is crystal clear. Composed by rising star Keegan DeWitt, the score is so absolutely instrumental to the entire experience that it's impossible to imagine the film without it. A mixture of stunning techno ambience and smooth jazzy chords that sound like they were ripped right out of Taxi Driver, the music immediately announces a spectacular blend of the old and the new, tipping its cap to the noir genre's past while thrusting it into the future. Gemini, the fifth feature of director Aaron Katz, is the kind of movie that I'm undeniably predisposed to like. But despite my own personal tastes, there's something genuinely magnificent about this L.A. neo-noir, a sharp, alluring, and surprisingly meta mystery that never once settles for predictability. A shaky ending aside, this is a downright impressive piece of work, marvelously thoughtful and gorgeous to behold.
Set in the neon-drenched landscapes of modern Los Angeles, Gemini follows Heather Anderson (Zoe Kravitz), a movie star and internet icon, and Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke), her best friend, assistant, and handler. Heather and Jill are practically as close as two friends can be- while their relationship is parental at times, the two are almost sisters. For Heather, this is a particularly rough time in her career. She's just been through a tough breakup, she's dropping out of a high-profile movie thanks to burnout, and she feels unsafe at every moment. From an angry director (Nelson Franklin) to crazy fans, Heather's life is increasingly fraught with drama. One dark and lonely night in L.A., Heather asks Jill if she can borrow her gun. Jill obliges her best friend's request, loading her own personal revolver and giving it to the actress for protection. Jill attends a production meeting, but when she returns to the star's mansion, Heather is lying dead in a pool of her own blood.
LAPD Detective Edward Ahn (John Cho) is quickly assigned to the case, and he has no qualms with making Jill the primary suspect. She loaded the bullets and accidentally fired the gun earlier in the morning, so her DNA is all over the murder weapon. Jill knows she didn't kill Heather, but she's frantic and unsure of what to do. So she dons an elaborate disguise and begins to investigate potential suspects, piecing together who could have killed her best friend. Could it be Greg, the director who is furious at Heather for dropping out of his passion project? What about Devin (Reeve Carney), a notoriously crazy ex-boyfriend with a bad boy reputation? Or maybe it's Jamie (Michelle Forbes), the Tinseltown power player with a grudge against Jill? With the clock ticking and Detective Ahn preparing the warrant, Jill finds herself racing to solve the puzzle of Heather's murder. And the answer just might be both more obvious and more surprising than you would think....
Gemini's noir framework isn't necessarily revolutionary, nor does it make for the most elaborate or complex mystery story. Running a compact 93 minutes, writer/director Katz keeps the twists and turns to a minimum, resulting in a movie with very little fat. But within this concise, familiar setup, the extent to which Katz is able to find his own voice and create something totally distinct is surprising in the best possible way. He seemingly never feels the pressure to adhere to the traditional constraints of the noir genre, trading in the usual hard-boiled prose for witty, pseudo-comedic dialogue with just a little bit of a kick. As much as this feels like a very sleek, modern neo-noir, it also feels like a deliberately subversive remix of those classic tropes. Katz shakes up our expectations of what film noir can be in 2018, often in ways that feel simultaneously dark and playful.
The result is a film that almost works as a meta commentary on the idea of mystery movies, mixing the flashy Hollywood setting with characters that often talk about the industry and throw around insider baseball terms. There's a crucial scene between Jill and Greg, the infuriated, brash director, that I believe strikes at the heart of the entire film. As they discuss prime suspects in the case of Heather's murder, Greg starts talking about how this would play out if he was writing it. He knocks certain subjects as too obvious for a script, while acknowledging that it all might end up being different in the real world. It's a sly little way of confronting our pre-conceptions of the mystery genre, carefully pointing us to an understanding of this film's goals while still keeping things fresh and unpredictable. Gemini never seems content to play to our expectations, constantly juggling tonal shifts and major twists without missing a beat. But it doesn't merely want to shock us- each chess move has a clever and carefully considered thematic and narrative purpose.
Beyond his wickedly smart and continually surprising screenplay, Katz also proves to be something of a budding master behind the camera, injecting a sense of vitality and life into the plastic world of Hollywood. In some ways, Gemini feels reminiscent of Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler, bolstered by a colorfully grim portrait of Los Angeles' seedy underbelly. Thankfully, Katz's direction and Andrew Reed's cinematography give the film a unique flavor that eventually takes on a life of its own, never settling to imitate other classic L.A. mysteries. Every scene in Gemini feels like it was filmed through a haze, creating an intoxicating blend of neon lights and piercing darkness. The mystery here is as blurry as the lighting, and Katz's knack for getting each shot just right is terrific. And it's all underscored by that brilliant score by DeWitt, an enigmatic and ingenious mixture of the old and the new, perfect for what Katz is trying to accomplish.
It helps when you have a cast as consistently terrific as the one in this film. Best known for Mozart in the Jungle and small roles in Gone Girl and American Made, Lola Kirke's journey to stardom is only beginning. But she's excellent here as the complex and surprisingly funny Jill, who wonderfully subverts our idea of what a mystery hero can be. Sharp and witty even in the most dire of situations, Kirke brings an almost Rashida Jones-esque charm to the celebrity assistant, adding levity to a dark mystery. Kirke has some great standalone moments in Gemini, but her most memorable scenes come when she's working with Zoe Kravitz, who delivers one of her best turns as Heather Anderson. Childlike, overdramatic, and surprisingly endearing, there are hidden depths within this seemingly one-dimensional character. Her dynamic with Jill is even more fascinating- it's a tremendous portrait of a close female friendship, but the relationship is almost parental at times. Kirke and Kravitz play off each other well, clearly leaning into the sly nuances in Katz's screenplay. Meanwhile, after Columbus, John Cho continues to add stoic brilliance to A-grade indie dramas, while Nelson Franklin gets some big laughs as the frustrated director.
After heaping praise on this movie for several paragraphs, it's a shame I still don't know how I feel about the ending. In fact, I'm not sure I ever will really sort out my feelings on Gemini's strange conclusion, which feels bizarrely anti-climatic in the aftermath of such a strong and surprising twist. In a way, the finale connects to what Greg says earlier in the film about the disconnect between mysteries in movies and mysteries in reality, but it feels so awkward in practice. The film builds up a significant sense of narrative moment and an incredible atmospheric intensity that ultimately dissipates, and no amount of thematic relevance can keep the conclusion from feeling flat. There's some interesting material about the relationship between fans and stars, the deceptive nature of cinematic crime stories, and the intersection of celebrities and the media, but this ending still feels like a letdown after everything that came before.
Nonetheless, even if Gemini can't quite stick the landing, everything that came before is so overwhelmingly strong that the conclusion is ultimately just a little bump in the road. With Katz at the helm, this L.A. neo-noir is rich and rewarding, a thrilling, smart, and cleverly meta crime story that never once delvers into predictability. A top-notch technical achievement and a feat of precise narrative mechanics, there's a lot to love here. Even at a mere 93 minutes, this is an extremely dense film, overflowing with bold ideas, eye-catching visual flourishes, and compelling twists on classic themes. It's strange that many have overlooked it in the early stages of this film year, but I have a feeling Gemini will eventually find an audience of devoted noir fans looking for a different kind of mystery movie.
THE FINAL GRADE: A- (8.8/10)
Images: NEON/IMDb
Set in the neon-drenched landscapes of modern Los Angeles, Gemini follows Heather Anderson (Zoe Kravitz), a movie star and internet icon, and Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke), her best friend, assistant, and handler. Heather and Jill are practically as close as two friends can be- while their relationship is parental at times, the two are almost sisters. For Heather, this is a particularly rough time in her career. She's just been through a tough breakup, she's dropping out of a high-profile movie thanks to burnout, and she feels unsafe at every moment. From an angry director (Nelson Franklin) to crazy fans, Heather's life is increasingly fraught with drama. One dark and lonely night in L.A., Heather asks Jill if she can borrow her gun. Jill obliges her best friend's request, loading her own personal revolver and giving it to the actress for protection. Jill attends a production meeting, but when she returns to the star's mansion, Heather is lying dead in a pool of her own blood.
LAPD Detective Edward Ahn (John Cho) is quickly assigned to the case, and he has no qualms with making Jill the primary suspect. She loaded the bullets and accidentally fired the gun earlier in the morning, so her DNA is all over the murder weapon. Jill knows she didn't kill Heather, but she's frantic and unsure of what to do. So she dons an elaborate disguise and begins to investigate potential suspects, piecing together who could have killed her best friend. Could it be Greg, the director who is furious at Heather for dropping out of his passion project? What about Devin (Reeve Carney), a notoriously crazy ex-boyfriend with a bad boy reputation? Or maybe it's Jamie (Michelle Forbes), the Tinseltown power player with a grudge against Jill? With the clock ticking and Detective Ahn preparing the warrant, Jill finds herself racing to solve the puzzle of Heather's murder. And the answer just might be both more obvious and more surprising than you would think....
Gemini's noir framework isn't necessarily revolutionary, nor does it make for the most elaborate or complex mystery story. Running a compact 93 minutes, writer/director Katz keeps the twists and turns to a minimum, resulting in a movie with very little fat. But within this concise, familiar setup, the extent to which Katz is able to find his own voice and create something totally distinct is surprising in the best possible way. He seemingly never feels the pressure to adhere to the traditional constraints of the noir genre, trading in the usual hard-boiled prose for witty, pseudo-comedic dialogue with just a little bit of a kick. As much as this feels like a very sleek, modern neo-noir, it also feels like a deliberately subversive remix of those classic tropes. Katz shakes up our expectations of what film noir can be in 2018, often in ways that feel simultaneously dark and playful.
The result is a film that almost works as a meta commentary on the idea of mystery movies, mixing the flashy Hollywood setting with characters that often talk about the industry and throw around insider baseball terms. There's a crucial scene between Jill and Greg, the infuriated, brash director, that I believe strikes at the heart of the entire film. As they discuss prime suspects in the case of Heather's murder, Greg starts talking about how this would play out if he was writing it. He knocks certain subjects as too obvious for a script, while acknowledging that it all might end up being different in the real world. It's a sly little way of confronting our pre-conceptions of the mystery genre, carefully pointing us to an understanding of this film's goals while still keeping things fresh and unpredictable. Gemini never seems content to play to our expectations, constantly juggling tonal shifts and major twists without missing a beat. But it doesn't merely want to shock us- each chess move has a clever and carefully considered thematic and narrative purpose.
Beyond his wickedly smart and continually surprising screenplay, Katz also proves to be something of a budding master behind the camera, injecting a sense of vitality and life into the plastic world of Hollywood. In some ways, Gemini feels reminiscent of Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler, bolstered by a colorfully grim portrait of Los Angeles' seedy underbelly. Thankfully, Katz's direction and Andrew Reed's cinematography give the film a unique flavor that eventually takes on a life of its own, never settling to imitate other classic L.A. mysteries. Every scene in Gemini feels like it was filmed through a haze, creating an intoxicating blend of neon lights and piercing darkness. The mystery here is as blurry as the lighting, and Katz's knack for getting each shot just right is terrific. And it's all underscored by that brilliant score by DeWitt, an enigmatic and ingenious mixture of the old and the new, perfect for what Katz is trying to accomplish.
It helps when you have a cast as consistently terrific as the one in this film. Best known for Mozart in the Jungle and small roles in Gone Girl and American Made, Lola Kirke's journey to stardom is only beginning. But she's excellent here as the complex and surprisingly funny Jill, who wonderfully subverts our idea of what a mystery hero can be. Sharp and witty even in the most dire of situations, Kirke brings an almost Rashida Jones-esque charm to the celebrity assistant, adding levity to a dark mystery. Kirke has some great standalone moments in Gemini, but her most memorable scenes come when she's working with Zoe Kravitz, who delivers one of her best turns as Heather Anderson. Childlike, overdramatic, and surprisingly endearing, there are hidden depths within this seemingly one-dimensional character. Her dynamic with Jill is even more fascinating- it's a tremendous portrait of a close female friendship, but the relationship is almost parental at times. Kirke and Kravitz play off each other well, clearly leaning into the sly nuances in Katz's screenplay. Meanwhile, after Columbus, John Cho continues to add stoic brilliance to A-grade indie dramas, while Nelson Franklin gets some big laughs as the frustrated director.
After heaping praise on this movie for several paragraphs, it's a shame I still don't know how I feel about the ending. In fact, I'm not sure I ever will really sort out my feelings on Gemini's strange conclusion, which feels bizarrely anti-climatic in the aftermath of such a strong and surprising twist. In a way, the finale connects to what Greg says earlier in the film about the disconnect between mysteries in movies and mysteries in reality, but it feels so awkward in practice. The film builds up a significant sense of narrative moment and an incredible atmospheric intensity that ultimately dissipates, and no amount of thematic relevance can keep the conclusion from feeling flat. There's some interesting material about the relationship between fans and stars, the deceptive nature of cinematic crime stories, and the intersection of celebrities and the media, but this ending still feels like a letdown after everything that came before.
Nonetheless, even if Gemini can't quite stick the landing, everything that came before is so overwhelmingly strong that the conclusion is ultimately just a little bump in the road. With Katz at the helm, this L.A. neo-noir is rich and rewarding, a thrilling, smart, and cleverly meta crime story that never once delvers into predictability. A top-notch technical achievement and a feat of precise narrative mechanics, there's a lot to love here. Even at a mere 93 minutes, this is an extremely dense film, overflowing with bold ideas, eye-catching visual flourishes, and compelling twists on classic themes. It's strange that many have overlooked it in the early stages of this film year, but I have a feeling Gemini will eventually find an audience of devoted noir fans looking for a different kind of mystery movie.
THE FINAL GRADE: A- (8.8/10)
Images: NEON/IMDb
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