‘Eat the Night’ presents the struggle of a queer drug dealer in a chronically online world

With just two features under their belts, the team of Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel have established a unique voice in French film. Both their 2018 debut “Jessica Forever” (now streaming on Shudder) and “Eat the Night” look empathetically at the lives of young people scarred by violence. The gangsta trappings of “Eat the Night” feel less fresh than their subversion of the sci-fi dystopia in “Jessica Forever.” (Poggi says “For me, {gay robber} Omar in ‘The Wire’ remains one of the most beautiful characters ever written. That’s because his sexuality challenges certain sociological prejudices and clichés.”) Both “Jessica Forever” and “Eat the Night” depict youth left to grow up on their own: Apolline (Lila Gueneau), a 17-year-old girl, barely leaves her room. Upstairs, her dying father lies in bed, hooked up to oxygen. Even as reality and the world of video games converge, “Eat the Night” never passes judgment on its characters’ immersion in fantasy. As the film begins, Apolline logs into the game Darknoon, which will shut down in 60 days. The second shot shows her father’s house, but in the moment, one can’t be sure if it’s an image from the game. She and her brother Pablo (Théo Cholbi) play together regularly. He earns a living dealing Ecstasy, manufacturing it himself. Although he works alone, he’s attacked by a gang for treading on their turf. After a beatdown, Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé) rescues him. The two become lovers and co-workers. Pablo instructs him on the process of making pills. The gang sets him for an arrest, leading to a brief jail sentence. Left alone during this period, Apolline and Night connect in Darknoon. A number of memorable documentaries have been made about communities that form inside video games, including this year’s “Knit’s Island” and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.” While Darknoon has been created for “Eat the Night,” Apolline’s immersion in it feels genuine. Her brother is much less preoccupied with the game. He needs to spend his time making money instead of playing it all day, but he drives around Le Havre meeting customers as though he were on a mission inside it. The film makes many connections between life inside and outside Darknoon. Just as Pablo rides a motorbike, the game’s characters get around riding atop giant wolves with glowing eyes. Apolline cosplays her Darknoon avatar, while she draws fan art of Pablo and Night. She brags about killing as many as 1,000 people a day within it. One could even see a link between the drugs Pablo sells and Apolline’s dedication to Darknoon, particularly since one of his potential customers is a 15-year-old girl. But the film itself doesn’t make that connection explicit. It also refrains from sensationalizing gang life or the drug trade. The danger of Pablo’s work doesn’t detract from the tenderness of his love for Night. Their relationship never makes them the object of homophobia, even if both men are targets. Their queerness is treated very casually. One could envision “Jessica Forever,” in which a woman supervises a gang of young men fighting for turf, as material for a video game. While the apocalyptic setting is more than a bit familiar, the directors’ attitude towards it was quite fresh. Jessica guides her charges towards a non-toxic version of masculinity, after their lives as teenage soldiers. Instead of the destroyed, metallic world of the “Mad Max” series, “Jessica Forever” is set amongst bright skies and green fields. It tries to find a path towards healing. Although “Eat the Night” is much less ambitious, with only three real characters, it too traces young people’s desire to connect with each other despite living under constant danger. Poggi and Vinel fail to reimagine the gangster film the way they did sci-fi. Pablo’s subplot is the least interesting portion of “Eat the Night.” His scenes could be edited together into a pilot for a generic Netflix series. The true investment of “Eat the Night” lies in games. How does it feel when human mortality and the end of Darknoon become one? If people die, so can video games and, more importantly, community spaces. Poggi and Vinel synthesize Jane Schoenbrun and Bertrand Bonello’s interest in chronically online lives, with bigger hearts. But for all the pathos of their finale, one wishes the rest of the film felt nearly as real. “Eat the Night” | Directed by Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel | In French with English subtitles | Altered Innocence | Opens Jan. 10th at IFC Center