One of the most distinctly directed debut films of was Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel’s strange sci-fi wonder Jessica Forever. Six years later, the duo finally return with Eat the Night, a thriller that premiered in Director’s Fortnight at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and will now arrive in the U.S. to kick off the New Year. Ahead of Altered Innocence’s January 10 release beginning at New York’s IFC Center, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new U.S. trailer and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “Pablo, a small-time drug dealer, and his teenage sister Apolline have forged an unbreakable bond through their shared obsession with the online video game Darknoon. When Pablo falls for the mysterious Night, he gets swept up in their liaison, abandoning his sister to deal with the impending shutdown of their digital haven alone. As Pablo’s reckless choices provoke the wrath of a dangerous rival gang, the end of their virtual life draws near, upending their reality. The newest vision from Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel (‘Jessica Forever’) is a bittersweet apocalyptic love story with a modern MMORPG twist.”
Alistair Ryder said in his BFI London review, “Jane Schoenbrun didn’t invent movies exploring teenage malaise and identity through the lens of pop culture, but in the opening moments of Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel’s Eat the Night, echoes of their two acclaimed features immediately rise to the surface. Much like the protagonist of We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, 17-year-old Apolline (Lila Gueneau) is entirely immersed in an online gaming community, her only contact with an emotionally distant father coming when he tries to dissuade her from spending so much time on it. And, in an unintentional similarity with I Saw the TV Glow––which premiered while this movie was in post-production––Apolline begins interrogating how the fantasy game Darknoon has shaped her identity as she discovers it will soon be terminated without warning. “
See the exclusive trailer and poster below.
