Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is a mesmerizing trip into the occult and poignant relationships that’s currently doing the rounds on TV.
The 2021 movie was written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour who made her movie debut with the bizarrely beautiful A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.*
Set in a New Orleans summer and played out beneath a blood-red full moon* the anti-heroine of the movie is 20-year-old Mona Lisa, played by Jeon Jong-seo.
Mona Lisa has supernatural powers and has been locked up in an asylum for 10 years. She finally makes her escape in a bloody manner and from there on, let the good times roll.
Out on the street she hooks up with a pole dancer at a strip joint, Bonnie Belle, played by Kate Hudson. The crafty stripper uses Mona’s strange power to approach hapless victims at ATM machines and get them to withdraw hundreds of dollars from their bank accounts.
Mona and Bonnie’s nine-year-old son Charlie become close friends, as do Mona and a cool street person called Fuzz, played by Ed Skrein.
The movie has a catchy, stoned score by Gettoblasters and engaging characters, all leading up to a bittersweet ending.
Near the end, when Fuzz drops Mona Lisa and Charlie off at the airport to make their escape, his parting words to her are, “I hate goodbyes, they make me teary and shit, see you in the sequal.”
I gather this was intentional to set up a possible sequal, which would be a great idea.
MAIN CAST
Soundtrack by Gettoblasters
*A blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse when Earth lines up between the Moon and the Sun, blocking the Moon from sunlight so that the only light reaching the Moon is from the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere which reflects onto the Moon’s surface with a red glow.
* A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night — and it’s haunting song — ‘Death’ by White Lies
Weird!😵💫
Yep, but worth the trip, check it out if you haven’t seen it.