Review: Gemini

With its moody opening images of palm trees against a newly dawned night, Gemini quickly establishes Los Angeles not as a La La Land but rather a place where danger lurks in all forms, whether it be predatory paparazzi, zealous superfans, disgruntled collaborators, or perhaps even a most trusted assistant.

Thematically related to Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper, Gemini focuses on the complex relationship between a celebrity and the person living in their shadow. The celebrity is Heather Anderson (Zoe Kravitz), a Hollywood starlet tiring of the media spotlight, which has only increased since her most recent breakup. All she wants to do is cast off her obligations and spend time with model Tracy (Greta Lee), whom she has been secretly dating. Unfortunately, it falls on Heather's assistant Jill (Lola Kirke) to do all the dirty work, fielding threatening phone calls from Heather's ex-boyfriend Devin (Reeve Carney), calming down a furious director (Nelson Maxwell) when Heather bails on his project at the last minute, and smoothing things over with Heather's exasperated agent Jamie (Michelle Forbes).

It's clear from their encounters with an obsessive fangirl and a persistent tabloid photographer that Jill is protective of Heather and, with all the people she's angering left, right and centre, even Heather is feeling unsafe. So much so that she asks Jill if she can borrow her gun which, not too long thereafter, becomes a murder weapon bearing only the fingerprints of both women. The second half of the film follows Jill as she attempts to figure out what happened as the lead detective on the case focuses on her as the prime suspect. The detective is played by John Cho with a deadpan friendliness laced with a dogged insidiousness.

More of Cho would have been welcomed, but one can understand writer-director Aaron Katz's intention of keeping him sidelined. As its title suggests, Gemini is not a murder mystery per se, but rather an exploration of our public versus our private lives and how personal and professional motivations are often blurred. For Heather, could the public ever separate her true self from the image that she has projected and that they have embraced? For Jill, does she stay on with Heather because they have a genuine bond or because of the promise of developing projects together?

Gemini is a film that's riddled with implausibilities, but these are overcome by the performances of its two leads, Katz's sure-handed direction, and the intoxicating spell created by cinematographer Andrew Reed's neon-lit images.

Gemini

Directed by: Aaron Katz

Written by: Aaron Katz

Starring: Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, John Cho, Greta Lee, Ricki Lake, Michelle Forbes, Nelson Franklin