A girl dressed in a straitjacket walks around New Orleans at night, chancing upon strangers that help her (or not) along her journey.
The girl is Mona Lisa, and she has escaped the mental institution she has been confined to for the past 12 years. The thing with Mona Lisa is she has psychokinetic powers – and the brain of a small child, which makes her extremely dangerous to anyone who does not treat her right.
It is therefore very satisfying to see (almost) everyone get what they deserve. We see how things are going to go when she runs into the first people after escaping the mental facility. They give her beer and shoes – and they are left unscathed. The nurse who mistreated her just a few minutes before learns that being a bad person was probably a mistake, though.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon feels like a road-movie meeting point between Stranger Things (2016 – ?) and Hustlers (2019). It is billed as horror, but calling it a feel-good Halloween movie would be closer to the truth.
The absolute highlights are Jeon Jong-seo’s and Kate Hudson’s performances.
Jeon Jong-seo might ring a bell amongst cinephiles as Burning‘s (2018) Hae-mi, and her performance in Mona Lisa feels like the other side of the coin from her role in The Call (2020). She doesn’t have many lines in the movie, but is able to convey anything and everything through her understated body language, demonstrating yet again that she is one of the world’s most talented actors working today.
Kate Hudson is also stellar as a single mother and stripper with no qualms about using people for her own ends, although her feelings are not all that bad. Her resemblance to Jennifer Lopez’s character in Hustlers is, however, impossible to overlook.
Worth of note is also the striking and overstylized look of the movie, shot mostly with wide lenses, that gives New Orleans an eery feel.
Although viewers will not find much to ponder on after watching it, Amirpour’s film is worth checking out. It is not very deep, but it is charming, and fun, and one hell of a good time.
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