Set in New Orleans, Lousiana, a disturbed institutionalized woman, Mona Lisa Lee (Jun Jong-seo), escapes from her institution after developing powers that allow her to control those who look into her eyes. Mona Lisa wanders around through the streets of New Orleans and finds help from various residents who offer her food or shoes until eventually she comes across dancer Bonnie "Bonnie Belle" Hunt (Kate Hudson) whom Mona Lisa saves from a brawl by taking control of the assailant. Realizing the powers could be useful, Bonnie has Mona Lisa stay with her and her precocious son Charlie (Evan Whitten) who feels unwanted in his mother's life and strikes up a friendship with Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa is brought by Bonnie to the club where she dances where using Mona Lisa's powers she begins raking in exorbitant amounts of money from unwilling patrons as well as doing similar schemes with ATM users. Meanwhile Officer Harold (Craig Robinson) is hellbent on pursuing Mona Lisa after she forced him to shoot his own leg.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is the latest film from Ana Lily Amirpour who scored a big hit with her debut film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and then stumbled in her follow-up film The Bad Batch which received a more divided response from critics and audiences with individual parts given praise while the whole tended to garner less than ecstatic results (myself included as I didn't like The Bad Batch). The movie began production in 2019 and now has been released by Saban Films on digital platforms and hopefully people discover this film because Amirpour creates a visually dazzling fever dream of a movie that shares some thematic DNA with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, but manages to forge its own identity in a unique way.
Much like how A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and Vampire films and Bad Batch inspired by 70s drive-in Cannibal and Post-Apocalyptic films, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon mines influences from fantasy and sci-fi thrillers of the 80s and 90s with the film capturing the aesthetic of films such The Terminator, Maniac Cop, Warlock or Repo Man where you had films taking place in urban vice filled environments but throwing in some kind of supernatural or sci-fi twist. The movie has a lot of fun subverting the tropes of those kinds of films as Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon doesn't have the nihilistic and cynical streak some of those films had with Mona Lisa's first encounter after she escapes the mental institution almost being a takeoff on the "your clothes, give them to me" scene from The Terminator except in that film where it was meant to be intimidating/darkly humorous, her Mona Lisa is given a pair of shoes by the group in a display of altruism that is uncharacteristically present throughout the film. The movie does still skirt the lines of morality as Mona Lisa's powers do involve taking control of others and the "friendship" she gets from Bonnie Belle is one of convenience and opportunity, but there's a strong human core to this film giving the sense the film is equal parts a creation of atmosphere as well as a character piece.
Jun Jong-seo of 2018's Burning and 2020's The Call is very good in the lead role as Mona Lisa and while she is a threatening presence in the film, there's also a level of emotional vulnerability that makes us empathize with her as she's a broken character who's now been given this extraordinary power while not fully understanding the world. Kate Hudson also is quite good in an against type performance as a hard scrabble exotic dancer who's very flawed as a character especially in her relationship with Mona Lisa and her son Charlie, but there are layers to the character and she's not a two-dimensional antagonist (really no one is). Craig Robinson is also very good as Officer Harold who tries to find Mona Lisa and his driven determination to bring her to justice coupled with his downright awful look from getting shot in the leg (but in the least bad way for whatever that's worth) to then having to do a foot chase after Mona Lisa and Bonnie in one of the film's darkly humorous moments. But the standout performance bar none was in Evan Whitten who plays Charlie and he's primarily known for his TV work such as doing an arc on The Resident and playing Young Elliot in the series Mr. Robot. Whitten does really well in the film and his friendship with Mona Lisa Lee is the kind of emotional core I wanted to grab onto but was lacking in The Bad Batch. Amirpour does a good job of building that relationship and she kind of sets it up as a surrogate brother/sister dynamic that makes you emotionally invested.
I really enjoyed Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon and think it's a great reminder of what a promising talent Amirpour is as a writer/director after The Bad Batch disappointed (at least for me). While there are more than a few shades of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night in the film's DNA, the movie does a strong enough job to stand on its own and makes a strong companion piece to Amirpour's debut film.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is the latest film from Ana Lily Amirpour who scored a big hit with her debut film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and then stumbled in her follow-up film The Bad Batch which received a more divided response from critics and audiences with individual parts given praise while the whole tended to garner less than ecstatic results (myself included as I didn't like The Bad Batch). The movie began production in 2019 and now has been released by Saban Films on digital platforms and hopefully people discover this film because Amirpour creates a visually dazzling fever dream of a movie that shares some thematic DNA with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, but manages to forge its own identity in a unique way.
Much like how A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and Vampire films and Bad Batch inspired by 70s drive-in Cannibal and Post-Apocalyptic films, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon mines influences from fantasy and sci-fi thrillers of the 80s and 90s with the film capturing the aesthetic of films such The Terminator, Maniac Cop, Warlock or Repo Man where you had films taking place in urban vice filled environments but throwing in some kind of supernatural or sci-fi twist. The movie has a lot of fun subverting the tropes of those kinds of films as Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon doesn't have the nihilistic and cynical streak some of those films had with Mona Lisa's first encounter after she escapes the mental institution almost being a takeoff on the "your clothes, give them to me" scene from The Terminator except in that film where it was meant to be intimidating/darkly humorous, her Mona Lisa is given a pair of shoes by the group in a display of altruism that is uncharacteristically present throughout the film. The movie does still skirt the lines of morality as Mona Lisa's powers do involve taking control of others and the "friendship" she gets from Bonnie Belle is one of convenience and opportunity, but there's a strong human core to this film giving the sense the film is equal parts a creation of atmosphere as well as a character piece.
Jun Jong-seo of 2018's Burning and 2020's The Call is very good in the lead role as Mona Lisa and while she is a threatening presence in the film, there's also a level of emotional vulnerability that makes us empathize with her as she's a broken character who's now been given this extraordinary power while not fully understanding the world. Kate Hudson also is quite good in an against type performance as a hard scrabble exotic dancer who's very flawed as a character especially in her relationship with Mona Lisa and her son Charlie, but there are layers to the character and she's not a two-dimensional antagonist (really no one is). Craig Robinson is also very good as Officer Harold who tries to find Mona Lisa and his driven determination to bring her to justice coupled with his downright awful look from getting shot in the leg (but in the least bad way for whatever that's worth) to then having to do a foot chase after Mona Lisa and Bonnie in one of the film's darkly humorous moments. But the standout performance bar none was in Evan Whitten who plays Charlie and he's primarily known for his TV work such as doing an arc on The Resident and playing Young Elliot in the series Mr. Robot. Whitten does really well in the film and his friendship with Mona Lisa Lee is the kind of emotional core I wanted to grab onto but was lacking in The Bad Batch. Amirpour does a good job of building that relationship and she kind of sets it up as a surrogate brother/sister dynamic that makes you emotionally invested.
I really enjoyed Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon and think it's a great reminder of what a promising talent Amirpour is as a writer/director after The Bad Batch disappointed (at least for me). While there are more than a few shades of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night in the film's DNA, the movie does a strong enough job to stand on its own and makes a strong companion piece to Amirpour's debut film.