A young Korean woman who possesses a supernatural power to bend people to her will escapes from a mental institute and runs riot, before making some unusual friends, in Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon. Emulating graphic novels in its hyper-sleazy New Orleans setting (the time might be the 1980s or 90s), the thriller written and directed by Ana Lily Aminpour features another violent heroine who is an outsider in America, like the girl vampire in a chador who challenged gender and cinematic stereotypes in the director’s Persian-language first film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. But the wild invention of that landmark bow is nowhere in sight in this all-American, Louisiana-set tale, which does little to advance Aminpour’s mystique. Competing in Venice, where her second film The Bad Batch won the Special Jury Prize in 2016, it is high on narrative energy but low on the striking originality that launched her career.
Once again we find a lonely young woman, Mona Lisa Lee (played by South Korean thriller actress Jun Jong Seo of Burning and The Call), whose dangerous female energy goes berserk and wreaks havoc on those around her, Carrie-style. This description makes it seem like more of a horror film than it really is, however. There is a nod to Asian horror in the first scary scene when an emotionless Mona Lisa breaks out of a high-security ward. In her white cell with padded walls, she forces a sadistic manicurist to stab herself with her own scissors, then uses her psychic abilities to make the night watchman bang his head against a TV and knock himself out.
The Iranian-American Aminpour has likened her films to an outsider’s search for personal freedom in a twisted society. There is certainly a lot of that on display here. On the run through an atmospheric bayou, where a huge full moon hangs over giant bald cypresses, the girl is a small, vulnerable figure against a dangerous world full of cops and desperados.
Yet we soon see she has little to fear. Looking graceful and chic in a blood-stained straight jacket with trailing sleeves, she catches the eye of a drug dealer passing the night outside a garish convenience store. When she tries to steal some snacks, the heavily tattooed Fuzz (Ed Skrein) gallantly buys them for her, avoiding further bloodshed, then surprises her with a kiss.
Her next friend, Bonnie (Kate Hudson, very much into the bad mom role and a joy to watch), also comes from the wrong side of the tracks. A blowsy stripper and pole dancer at The Panty Drop on Bourbon Street, she’s introduced in a well-staged scene outside a fast food joint, where she gets into an obscenity-laced cat fight with another woman who accuses her of coming on to her man. Their minimal summer attire introduces more of Natalie O’Brien’s outré costumes.
Bonnie’s interest in Mona Lisa is far from disinterested. Having discovered the girl’s super power during her tussle, she puts it to good use at the nightclub, where Mona compels a quartet of male customers to shower Bonnie with every dollar in their wallets. The trick also works at ATM machines
Bonnie’s 11-year-old son Charlie (a delightfully self-possessed Evan Whitten, who we need to see more of) proves a truer friend, agreeing to accompany her in a final flight to freedom. Pursued by their comical nemesis, officer Harold (Craig Robinson, slowed down after she makes him shoot himself in the leg), Mona and Charlie plan to escape together in the most conventional way possible, on a commercial flight to Detroit (shades of Jim Jarmusch and his vampire hit Only Lovers Left Alive.)
It must be said that stylistically the film is exciting. If D.P. Pawel Pogorzelski gives a touch of lunar poetry to the nighttime French Quarter, his camera goes wild with the neon colors of Brandon Tonner-Connolly sets — trashy clubs, fast food places and supermarkets, heating up the atmosphere with the thumping basses of a pumped-up soundtrack of Italian techno and heavy metal.
Director, screenplay: Ana Lily Amirpour§
Cast: Kate Hudson, Jun Jong Seo, Craig Robinson, Evan Whitten, Ed Skrein
Producers: John Lesher, Dylan Weathered
Cinematography: Pawel Pogorzelski
Production design: Brandon Tonner-Connolly
Costume design: Natalie O’Brien
Editing: Taylor Levy
Music: Daniel Luppi
Sound: Jacob Ribicoff, Frenchie Gaya, Chris Terhune
Production companies: Le Grisbi, 141 Entertainment in association with Rocket Science, Black Bicycle, Wiip Studios
World sales: Rocket Science
Venue: Venice Film Festival (competition)
In English
106 minutes
