An L.A. noir for a new era
A moody noir pop-up, “Gemini” is writer-director Aaron Katz’s alluring, selfreflexive Los Angeles-set mystery that also doubles as a pictorial mash note to the city’s gleaming spaces and dreaming inhabitants.
At the crux of its titular duality is a showbiz relationship of commonality and convenience between young starlet Heather (Zoë Kravitz), pursued by social media followers and professional/romantic suitors in various stages of neediness, and her assistant Jill (Lola Kirke), whose duties include handler, companion and sleepover confidante.
When the pair’s work/ play night of angering a f lustered director (Nelson Franklin) and drunken karaoke with Heather’s secret squeeze (Greta Lee) ends with the morning discovery of a bullet-riddled body, Jill becomes a prime suspect in the eyes of a patient, dogged detective (John Cho).
While Jill’s mission to uncover the truth leans into tense turns, oddball twists and scenic moods, Katz enriches the well-established glossary of Southern California noir with a richly textured palette (courtesy cinematographer Andrew Reed), abetted nicely by Keegan DeWitt’s atmospheric soundtrack.
You sense the messier aesthetics of Katz’s mumblecore origins have fallen away to reveal a born alchemist of story and imagery — in its arresting visual tour of L.A.’s groovy neighborhoods and rich hideaways, “Gemini” captures a secret, abiding and even menacing melancholy behind its oft-regarded surfaces.
And with his soulful, close-up-ready female leads, Katz finds performance power too.
Kravitz nails the peculiar precocity of an internet-age idol, while Kirke quickly earns our sympathy as a brunet indie heroine turned blond-dyed — and eventually leather-clad and motorbike-riding — amateur sleuth.
“Gemini” may be the ideal Instagram-era genre flick: an identity thriller about advantage and escape that swipes left and right with cool, calculated authority. “Gemini.” Rated: R, for pervasive language and a violent image. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. Playing: AMC Century City; ArcLight Hollywood.