Mona Lisa Lee is a patient in a mental institution near New Orleans. After silently enduring abusive treatment, she uses a telepathic power to escape, injuring several workers who stand in her way. Wandering the streets aimlessly at night, she encounters various strangers, some of them hostile or menacing. Her strange behavior brings her to the attention of a policeman, Officer Harold, who tries to arrest her. She uses her power to cause him to shoot himself in the knee.
Next, she saves a woman named Bonnie Belle who is losing a fistfight in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. Bonnie Belle, a stripper who is a single mother, befriends Mona Lisa and takes her home. Mona bonds with Bonnie's young son, Charlie.
Bonnie exploits Mona Lisa's power to rob a man at an ATM, and to extort unintended tips from the patrons of the nightclub where she dances. Mona Lisa's actions bring her to the attention of Officer Harold, as he continues to investigate. When he confronts the two women, Bonnie's actions cause Mona Lisa to see through her and she ends the friendship. Alone, Bonnie is attacked and badly beaten by a group of men she had defrauded earlier.
Mona Lisa decides to leave town and offers to take Charlie with her. Charlie accepts. When they are nearly apprehended by Officer Harold at the airport, Charlie creates a distraction so that Mona Lisa can escape.
In October 2018, it was announced Kate Hudson, Craig Robinson, Altonio Jackson, and Zac Efron had joined the cast of the film, with Ana Lily Amirpour directing from a screenplay she wrote. John Lesher will serve as a producer under his Le Grisbi Productions banner.[2] Black Bicycle Entertainment is producing in association with wiip, Luke Rodgers will executive produce. In April 2019, Jun Jong-seo joined the cast of the film.[3] In July 2019, it was announced Ed Skrein and Evan Whitten had joined the cast of the film, with Skrein replacing Efron.[4]
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2021.[7] In March 2022, Saban Films acquired distribution rights to the film.[8] It was released in the United States on September 30, 2022.[9]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on reviews from 65 critics, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon finds writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour spinning a stylishly lurid – if somewhat narratively undercooked – fantasy yarn."[10]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]
