Review: Eat the Night

10 March, 2025 William Eguizabal 0 Comments 1 category

Title: Eat the Night
MPA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
Starring: Lila Gueneau, Théo Cholbi, Erwan Kepoa Falé
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins

What It Is: Young Appoline (Gueneau) has long been obsessed with the MMORPG Darknoon, a game she first got into because of her brother, Pablo (Cholbi), who also happens to be her drug dealer. When Pablo partners—both professionally and romantically—with Night (Kepoa Falé), the two set out to expand their business. But when a rival dealer catches Pablo on his turf, things take a dangerous turn, forcing both Pablo and Night into an entirely different kind of fight.

Meanwhile, as their relationship deepens, Appoline grapples with the heartbreaking reality that her favorite game’s servers are shutting down—for good.

What We Think: This is an inconsistent film. When it is good it is very good but there’s points where the script falls off and you’re left wondering what could’ve been had the focus been there. Pretty solid performances all around. Erwan Kepoa Falé perhaps the best among them. He brings something to Night. Makes him a person. Pablo isn’t really a complete character until he enters the picture. Once they’re in it together though. Fantastic. I love the use of the video game aesthetic to tell some of the story. There’s an odd change up near the end of the movie and it’s done to further use the video game aesthetic. It sort of works well.

Tonal shifts can be okay but in a small film like this they really sort of make or break things. They broke this film, not drastically to the point where it’s unforgivable but to some mild extent that lost my interest.

Our Grade: C+, This is a film that suffers from a lot of inconsistencies and sadly there was a lot of potential for this to be great. Lila Gueneau actually does really work here and she’s really the heart of the film in the way Night is the engine. This is one to check out as it is a unique experience. Other than that it’s all very run of the mill.