Eat the Night

[1] The film centres on the relationship between Apolline (Lila Gueneau) and Pablo (Théo Cholbi), a brother and sister in Le Havre who are passionate fans of an online video game called Darknoon; when the game developers announce that it will be shutting down at Christmastime, Apolline remains obsessed with the game while Pablo moves on and enters a romantic relationship with Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé), with whom he becomes embroiled in a dangerous conflict between rival drug dealer gangs.

[4] Fabien Lemercier of Cineuropa wrote that "Highly physical and intensely paced, Eat The Night moves skillfully between its fascinating virtual universe (notably with a breathtaking apocalyptic finale) and the very nihilistic everyday life in which the protagonists struggle.

However, with the exception of a few sequences, the film doesn't exploit all the narrative possibilities offered by Darknoon, using it brilliantly but repetitively, and above all the dynamic ‘drug war’ part turns out to be very banal and caricatured, not to say implausible.

Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel may even have imagined this reality on purpose, as if everything were a vast video game, but from the point of view of the simple spectator, the attempt, despite its high ambition and disparate qualities, is disappointing overall.

This will no doubt not prevent the film from finding its audience and its makers from continuing their trajectory as filmmakers with a ‘cult’ label.