Gemini *** (2017, Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, John Cho, Nelson Franklin, Greta Lee) – Movie Review 

Writer-director Aaron Katz’s neo noir mystery thriller is tremendously atmospheric and stylish, taking us on a wild ride to Hollywood, where a personal assistant and her bisexual Hollywood starlet boss enjoy a close and happy enough working relationship.

That is, until starlet Heather (Zoë Kravitz) decides to bail on her latest movie, leading assistant Jill (Lola Kirke) into a slew of problems, as she tries to handle the situation and people involved, particularly the director, Gregg (Nelson Franklin), who threatens to kill Heather. Worse, much worse, is to follow.

Soon, Detective Edward Ahn (John Cho) turns up on the case, doggedly tracking Jill’s every movie, for ever popping up, Columbo style, as she travels Los Angeles to unravel the mystery. It turns out Heather has a girlfriend, Tracy (Greta Lee), who may be up to something shady.

There is plenty of taut suspense and there are good performances on the plus side of this pretty good movie that makes a decent job of being exciting while probing the nature of friendship, truth and illusion, and celebrity.

The only problem is that the characters and the mystery are not really fascinating enough to propel it into the compulsive category. Somewhere after about an hour, it gets less interesting, and sort of finally fizzles out with a whimper rather than a bang. There’s a lot of chat, mostly good fun and well played, and very little action.

Lola Kirke is very compelling, though, as the young modern-day Miss Marple sleuthing quietly and doggedly away. She’s a class act, and herself alone worth the price of admission.

What’s needed here is just more. More plot, more characters, more suspects, more subtlety, more depth, more backstory, and more running time – maybe an extra 20 minutes. I’m in favour of short films, but not when they are promisingly good like this and feel cut off in their prime. Nevertheless, Gemini is quite fun and quite enjoyable, and definitely worth checking out.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review 

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