Medusa

This is the kind of film that will appeal to the person who looks at 'black line on white canvas' at a modern art museum and thinks there's more to it than a black line on a white canvas. I should have known when I saw that this film was well-rated by critics that it would be a total loser, but I took a chance anyway. This was in the 'horror/thriller' category on the kanopy streaming service, and since I was in the mood for a horror, I thought I'd give it a shot. It was one of the more painful shots I've had in a while. Some of the scenes made no sense whatsoever, and you didn't know if they were real or dreamt, though they came across as real - real stupid. The whole premise doesn't make much sense, but far be it from me to spoil it for any poor sap who looks at the good reviews and wants to give it a watch. Perhaps if you're Brazilian it will make more sense to you, but for this senior American male, it was a complete dud. I don't often rate a movie a '1', but I honestly think that's what this deserves. You've been warned.

With a running time of over two hours, Medusa was in need of some serious editing. A group of eight women are vigilantes at night, wearing white masks while dishing out beatings to those in need of punishment for their sins. The unworthy are made to repent while promising to reform while dedicating the rest of their lives to Jesus.

Mari(Mari Oliveira) is the lead actress and she is the only positive aspect of this tedious and drawn out story.

Mari ends up working at a hospital for comatose patients and things go from bad to worse for the young nurse. I saw this posted as horror and I was waiting for a something scary to happen and it never did.

Medusa is a bore fest.

Thematically, structurally, and in the way it ambiguously employs the fantastic, this is a film akin to another Brazilian film from 2022, "Raquel 1:1."

Both address the themes effectively (yes, these are crazy people), feature excellent performances by young actors, skillfully intertwine the coming-of-age aspects with the uncertainties and certainties of age, are visually inspiring and thought-provoking to an equal extent, falling slightly short of fully exploring their enormous potential.

Trimming off 20 minutes would make this film more narratively coherent. A different ending might be desired by many. Yet, I can't overlook all the great things it does so well, both in terms of what it has to say (and especially how it does it) and in its highly commendable technical aspects. The main lead is brilliant.

I saw the premiere of Medusa at Cannes Film Festival and had no expectations whatsoever. I was totally gripped throughout and immediately invested in the narrative and characters. The colour palette of the movie is intense; oranges, reds, greens and neons- all deeply symbolic. The soundtrack is amazing and helps to keep the pace moving along. Bruna's performance is layered and career defining. I loved how stylised the film is. The unapologetically feminist conclusion makes this film feel totally relevant and a definite one to watch. Would highly recommend.

Saw this at the Rotterdam filmfestival (IFFR) 2022, not in a venue but online. I booked this movie after reading controversial and contradicting reviews. I'm not sure it's the best attitude for watching, but I did anyway. In retrospect, I'm surprised I made it until the end.

I'm a bit bothered by the all-female squad hunting women "deviating from the right path", without having any clue (at least, I did not see any) how to identify such deviators. Was it sufficient for a woman to walk alone at night, thereby assuming no proper woman has any business alone at that hour. If that was the case, the black&white division of good and bad is dangerous in the hands of uncontrolled gangs, be it men or women for that matter, usually not asking questions but merely assume, judge and strike.

The story as it enrolls does not show a natural flow and misses logical developments carrying us from A to B, then to C, and so on. We constantly see two alternating lives, one among co-believers and one other in a professional setting. The latter story starts in a hospital for plastic surgery, but our main protagonist (MP) moves to a hospital nursing comateuse people later. After she was wounded in her face yielding a very visible scar, she was dismissed by the plastic surgery hospital for fear of upsetting patients there. Her job move was deliberate: comateuse patients do not care how a nurse looks.

Due to the genre labels by IMDB, I could not help myself thinking of night shifts, being nearly alone among all those dormant coma-patients. Added to that, mostly in the company of one colleague (male) nurse, with nothing much to do to pass the time. The filmmakers probably intended to generate all kinds of thoughts with us viewers (and maybe with our MP too, as we get one sex scene, of which I'm not sure it was imagined or real).

The counseling session with the minister/vicar does not help much to keep me and our MP on the right track. However, that may be my non-pure view only, when the vicar lays hands on her but was interrupted in the middle when his presence was needed elsewhere. Maybe, my devious thoughts were not intended by the filmmakers (for me, it looked like a typical #MeToo case in progress).

And what about the surprising ending some reviewers wrote about?? What did I miss?? Or is this just a consequence of the missing narrative, leading us from one scene to another unrelated scene, and eventually to nowhere?? The alternating scenes (the street gangs, hospital, pseudo-religuous sessions, and so on) made me persist until the end, persistently longing for something relevant or interesting to happen. But I waited in vain. That I saw the ending was a miracle in itself, if I may be so bold in retrospect, usually having it switched off earlier.

All in all, I have not enough substance to write a conclusion. I scored a 2 out of 5 for the audience award, for the sole reason that the movie I saw before this one, was worse and did not deserve more than 1 out of 5.