“Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” is a 2021 fantasy thriller film written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. It stars Kate Hudson, Jun Jong-seo and Ed Skrein. The film follows a mysterious woman with supernatural powers who escapes from a mental asylum and befriends a struggling single mother in New Orleans. Together, they embark on a crime spree, but their actions soon draw unwanted attention from the cops.
If you’re not familiar with her, Ana Lily Amirpour is an institution when it comes to the subversive, the sinister, and above all, designing landscapes and films with great aesthetic potential. “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” has the same visual potential in a film that leans more towards the artistic than the terrifying, in this particular poetry of the sinister.
Synopsis
A young woman named Mona Lisa (Jun Jong-seo) escapes from a mental asylum in New Orleans. She has strange powers, including the ability to control people’s minds and see the future. She meets a struggling single mother named Wendy (Kate Hudson), who takes her in. Wendy sees an opportunity to make some fast cash by using Mona Lisa’s powers to help her commit crimes. They start by robbing a bank, but their crime spree soon escalates. They attract the attention of the cops, led by Detective Jones (Craig Robinson). Mona Lisa and Wendy must use their powers to stay one step ahead of the law.
About the Film
“Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” is a film that above all knows how to be itself, without resorting to classic horror tricks, without deceiving anyone, and without pretending to take us into the realm of the malevolent. It is a film that, while sinister, does not strive to be a horror film, and while comedic, does not aim to be a comedy. How to classify it remains an unanswered question.
It traverses, however, wanting to play with the viewer’s sense of definition, to intoxicate its audience with its rhythm, and its blend of calm and style, making it seductively genuine, and above all, unique.
Our Opinion
Enjoy this film that, although it does not conform to the norm, and may seem to be going nowhere, in fact does know where it wants to take its audience.
Director
The Cast
Evan Whitten
Lauren Bowles
