Medusa Deluxe

The one-take movie is a fun concept. But the fact still remains that if the script isn't good, the concept isn't going to cover up that fact. This was actually the first one-take film I've seen that I haven't enjoyed. All the other ones have had a great script to back up the concept. On this occasion though I wonder if they were using it to mask the weakness of what they had to work with, rather than doing it for purely artistic reasons.

The first thing a film has to do is make you care, and this one never did. I never found a character I could relate to or even enjoy their presence on screen. And I was never given a reason to care about the murder-mystery. We never meet the person who is murdered or even see them murdered. We are just told and then expected to spend 90 minutes desperately wondering whodunnit. That's not possible to do.

A one-take whodunnit should have been an absolute dream film for me to enjoy, but if the execution isn't there then it doesn't matter. This one was sadly a big misfire for me. 3/10.

Set amongst the cut-throat world of a regional hairdressing contest, this rather thinly spread drama follows the antics of some would-be competitors who gather for their annual jamboree only to find that one of their number has been killed. Scalped, to be precise. As the story develops, we see that there are no shortage of suspects from the great and the good as the scene-stealing "Cleve" (Clare Perkins), "Divine" (Kayla Meikle) and "Kendra" (Harriet Webb) spat, squabble and spar like the best of them. They are all stuck waiting for the police to question them so tensions are only going to increase as they gossip, conspire and also demonstrate some considerably imaginative skills with their hairdos before: enter the partner of the victim. "Angel". At last some semblance of acting from the usually handsome but wooden Luke Pasqualino. Loads of stereotypes, yes, but he actually turns in quite an engaging performance as the camp-as-Christmas, distraught, mincer. Unfortunately, though, this is really just a one act play that has been overstretched into one hundred minutes of screen time, and though it most certainly has it's moments, there are too many extended tracking shots as the camera follows someone, somewhere, around their complex that seemed bigger than the Royal Albert Hall. There's simply too much padding around a story that could have done a little more to develop the personalities more. It is underpinned by some effective black humour - and some of that delivers well and caustically (especially from Perkins) but there's too much of a paucity of that to stop this from feeling rather longer than it is. It looks every a inch a television play, and as such does it's job fine - but I wouldn't say you need to buy a ticket to watch it.

An ingenious comedy that imitates one-take productions, it is rather built on the basis of well-structured, assembled and recorded sequences that, in the style of Alfred Hitchcock's «Rope», resolve the transitions by means of dissolves and cuts between black shots and other resources. Unlike Hitchcockian drama, however, the camera is not static, but a mobile 'stylo' that enters dressing rooms, bathrooms, elevators, and a stage, and moves through stairs, corridors and gates.

As in «Rope», the plot revolves around the murder of a person (a hairdresser), whose scalp was torn off after being killed, in the middle of a celebration. Instead of a group of guests in an apartment, with the corpse cleverly hidden, here it is a center for events and shows in London, where a hairdressing contest is happening. So the form is the content and viceversa, they are two faces of the same complex portrait and complementary reflections on the modern lives of those who are usually out of frame in mainstream cinema.

The central cast looks like a postcard from Benetton with vibrant, vivacious and energetic actors of various ethnicities, made up of the fearsome hairdressers Cleve (Clare Perkins), Kendra (Harriet Webb) and Divine (Kayla Meikle) who compete for the grand prize, the promoter René (Darrell D'Silva), the Colombian hairdresser Angel (Luke Pasqualino), the models Angie (Lilit Lesser), Inez (Kae Alexander), Timba (Anita-Joy Uwajeh), and Etsy (Debris Stevenson), the security guards Gac (Hieder Ali) and Patricio (Nicholas Karimi), and the baby Pablo (twins Logan and James Porter). They all wait for the Police to arrive to question them about the murder of the fearsome Mosca (John Alan Roberts), but since the police arrive after the storm as the rainbow, we follow plenty scenes and dialogues of confrontation, persecution, violence, confessions, music and dancing.

Thomas Hardiman wrote and directed his first feature film and the result was this great film that makes us spend 101 minutes of fun, synergy and extravagance, without missing touching moments, guided by the admirable photography of Robbie Ryan and his operator Jake Whitehouse.

Medusa Deluxe directed by Thomas Hardiman, is a captivating film that seamlessly delivers a gripping cinematic experience.

The cinematography is mesmerizing, with each frame meticulously composed to evoke a sense of both awe and unease. Camera work is really impressive - you can really appreciate the tech side to the film

The score perfectly complements the visuals, further immersing the audience into the film's world.

Casting is put together really well throughout with talent that engages you throughout the film with they're interesting personas.

Would really recommend to check this out. The film has been released nationally in the UK.

Murder at the hairdressing competition. It's like the title Agatha Cristie forgot to write. We don't get a Poirot however, just a bunch of unlikeable characters chattering away for 90 minutes. We don't get to meet the victim, he's already cold when the movie opens, nor do we geet to meet the detectives working the case. We"re stuck with the models and collegues of the victim. It's a directorial choice offcourse. Just as the fact that the whole movie is filmed (or appears to be filmed) in one take. Which means a director going on an egotrip and an audience that has to suffer through endless shots of people walking through corridors. As you can tell I wasn't particularly taken with Medusa Deluxe. When we finally get to know whodunnit I was long past caring.