* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

    Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Driving Entertainment and Education – Livability.com

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Transforming Entertainment and Education

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    ENERCON and Biome collaborate for wind turbine noise reduction technology – Yahoo Finance

    ENERCON and Biome Join Forces to Revolutionize Wind Turbine Noise Reduction

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    Is Light-Speed Analog Computing the Future of Technology? – BIOENGINEER.ORG

    Could Light-Speed Analog Computing Transform the Future of Technology?

    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

    Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Driving Entertainment and Education – Livability.com

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Transforming Entertainment and Education

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    ENERCON and Biome collaborate for wind turbine noise reduction technology – Yahoo Finance

    ENERCON and Biome Join Forces to Revolutionize Wind Turbine Noise Reduction

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    Is Light-Speed Analog Computing the Future of Technology? – BIOENGINEER.ORG

    Could Light-Speed Analog Computing Transform the Future of Technology?

    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Entertainment

‘Medusa Deluxe’ Review: Thomas Hardiman’s Imperfect but Exciting Feature Debut

August 11, 2023
in Entertainment
‘Medusa Deluxe’ Review: Thomas Hardiman’s Imperfect but Exciting Feature Debut
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In the world of Medusa Deluxe, beauticians wield scissors like knives and hairsprays like pistols. Hairstyling competitions are fraught spaces stacked with talented participants. Anyone can tame an unruly mane, but only a handful can turn it into a work of art.

“I’m in the middle of a Georgian fontange,” one stylist snaps in the opening scene of Thomas Hardiman’s exciting directorial debut. “You can’t just walk away from that shit.” Tensions are high in this dressing room. Outside the door, police patrol the hall. Sirens blare in the distance. The death of Mosca (John Alan Roberts), one of the stylists, has paused the competition and forced a temporary lockdown.

Medusa Deluxe

The Bottom Line

Mesmerizing, even though it doesn’t stick the landing.

Release date: Friday, Aug. 11
Cast: Luke Pasqualino, Lilit Lesser, Clare Perkins, Kayla Meikle, Debris Stevenson, Heider Ali
Director-screenwriter: Thomas Hardiman

Rated R,
1 hour 41 minutes

The atmosphere is thick with suspicion. This is a cutthroat bunch, a community whose members convene annually to flaunt their skills and prove themselves. There are public alliances and private allegiances. Betrayals abound, too. Everyone has a theory. All of them are suspects.

Back in the dressing room, the camera stays close to the stylist working on the fontange, circling her as she snips and shapes. Her name is Cleve, and she is played by an exceptional Clare Perkins, whose delivery is barbed and steely. She wants to know how long they will be stuck in this room, trapped in this building. She thinks this is all an act and that the dead stylist — a known adversary of hers — is an idiot.

The beautician working beside her doesn’t agree, but her responses are subdued. Divine (Kayla Meikle) munches in the corner, texturing Cleve’s monologue with ad libs: The “Mhm” and “That’s terrible” become a kind of conversational refrain. I could listen to these two, and many of the other characters in Medusa Deluxe, all day — they are a distinctive group, a fascinating gallery of characters in Hardiman’s meandering whodunit.

Medusa Deluxe is a formal feat first and a murder mystery second. The film is shot in a continuous take and the camera, handled by DP Robbie Ryan, is a wily interlocutor. We enter and exit rooms by following people through halls, trailing them as they wind through corridors and barge into different corners of this nondescript building. Furtively exchanged looks and weighted conversations introduce us to different characters. It’s a game of hot potato, with our attention being passed around.

Hardiman wrote the screenplay, and his story starts off strong. Cleve, the abrasive stylist who hurls insults with the same precision as she cuts hair, kicks off the action. This is undoubtedly Perkins’ film. She adds a humorous bent to her character’s prickliness, but she never lets her guard down. She keeps Cleve’s intentions, motivations and allegiances close to the chest, making her one of the strongest characters in Medusa Deluxe.

This isn’t to say that the other stylists aren’t giving. Medusa Deluxe is saved from its own potential waywardness by a series of stellar performances. The cast animates the strange, disquieting world of beauticians who describe their craft in profound, almost holy terms.

When Angie (Lilit Lesser), the model whose hair Cleve is working on, asks to take her break, she brings us with her. The camera stays on the half-complete metal mass sitting atop her head as she checks in on the other models. Angie walks in on Timba (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) telling Kendra (a sharp Harriet Webb), a stylist, and two other models, Inez (Kae Alexander) and Etsy (Debris Stevenson), about stumbling upon the dead body. “I was thinking this is where I should scream, but nothing is coming,” Timba says, wrapped in a metallic orange smock.

The camera snakes through the room, registering the characters as they sit rapt by Timba’s story. Even in their incomplete states, the models’ hair (styled by Scarlett O’Connell) gestures at the perfectionism and adeptness of these beauticians.

When Timba speaks, the camera closes in on her face. We watch her eyes scan the room and her mouth twitch when she recounts how the body had been scalped. Each interaction among the models and stylists — and later with the head of the competition Rene (Darrell D’Silva), Mosca’s partner Angel (Luke Pasqualino) and even the facility’s security guard Gac (Heider Ali) — adds a new layer of anxiety.

For a while, Medusa Deluxe is all nerve and suspense. Hardiman deftly ratchets up the narrative tension, and each performance sustains our suspicions. The more we learn about the intra-group dynamics, the less trustworthy and stable each person’s alibi becomes.

But the story starts to wobble as Medusa Deluxe approaches its conclusion. An oddly deflating mood creeps into the film. All the stalking and roving starts to play like a distraction. I wondered: Who are these people? Where is this going? Hardiman’s characters begin to feel a bit thin, their grievances repetitive. I wished for a looser film — one not so constrained by its formal experiment.

But by the time we’ve met all the players and gotten a sense of their motivations — both obvious and hidden — Hardiman has proven himself. There are enough clever transitions and sleek handoffs to keep you engaged, to make you trust him and wonder what will happen next. With Medusa Deluxe, we’re watching the director craft his own Georgian fontange. We know better than to walk away.

Full credits

Distributor: A24
Production companies: BBC Film, British Film Institute, EMU Films, Time Based Art
Cast: Luke Pasqualino, Lilit Lesser, Clare Perkins, Kayla Meikle, Debris Stevenson, Heider Ali, Kae Alexander, Harriet Webb, Nicholas Karimi, Darrell D’Silva, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Logan and James Porter, John Roberts, Estelle Digridi, Victory Peal Maburutse, Mitesh Soni, Michelle Parker, Isabella-Rae Royle, Joshua Royle, Nina Anderson, Dawn Royle
Director-screenwriter: Thomas Hardiman
Producers: Michael Elliott, Louise Palmkvist Hansen, Lee Groombridge
Executive producers: Walli Ullah, Jim Mooney, Eva Yates, Lizzie Francke
Director of photography: Robbie Ryan BSC, ISC
Production designer: Gary Williamson
Costume designer: Cynthia Lawrence-John
Editor: Fouad Gaber
Music: Koreless
Casting director: Gary Davy CDG, CSA

Rated R,
1 hour 41 minutes

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

Subscribe

Sign Up

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : HollywoodReporter – https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/medusa-deluxe-review-1235560928/

Tags: ‘MedusaDeluxeentertainment
Previous Post

19 Rum Drinks to Sip Whether You’re on a Beach or Not

Next Post

Young Thug’s YSL RICO Case To Be Examined In ‘King Slime’ Podcast Series

Horses making the rounds at Florida hospitals – The Union Democrat

Horses Bringing Joy and Healing to Florida Hospitals

October 8, 2025
ENERCON and Biome collaborate for wind turbine noise reduction technology – Yahoo Finance

ENERCON and Biome Join Forces to Revolutionize Wind Turbine Noise Reduction

October 8, 2025
Cancun’s Sports Bar & Grill opens second location in North Tallahassee – Tallahassee Democrat

Cancun’s Sports Bar & Grill Expands with Exciting New Location in North Tallahassee

October 8, 2025
Welcome Home: World Aquatics Breaks Ground on Future Headquarters in Budapest – World Aquatics

Welcome Home: World Aquatics Launches Exciting New Headquarters in Budapest

October 8, 2025
New Zealand Surprises With Larger Rate Cut as Economic Concerns Mount – Bloomberg.com

New Zealand Surprises Markets with Larger-Than-Expected Rate Cut Amid Rising Economic Concerns

October 8, 2025
Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

October 8, 2025
Health Rounds: Genetics play a role in higher depression risk for women – Reuters

How Genetics Shape Depression Risk in Women: What Everyone Should Understand

October 8, 2025
October 7, 2025 – Federal government shutdown – CNN

October 7, 2025 – Federal government shutdown – CNN

October 8, 2025
Blackwater photos suggest new symbiosis between fish and anemones – EurekAlert!

Breathtaking Blackwater Photos Unveil an Unexpected Alliance Between Fish and Anemones

October 8, 2025
WATCH LIVE: The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry is… – PBS

Breaking News: Unveiling the Latest Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry!

October 8, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (857)
  • Economy (878)
  • Entertainment (21,751)
  • General (17,482)
  • Health (9,920)
  • Lifestyle (891)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (879)
  • Politics (889)
  • Science (16,088)
  • Sports (21,379)
  • Technology (15,859)
  • World (861)

Recent News

Horses making the rounds at Florida hospitals – The Union Democrat

Horses Bringing Joy and Healing to Florida Hospitals

October 8, 2025
ENERCON and Biome collaborate for wind turbine noise reduction technology – Yahoo Finance

ENERCON and Biome Join Forces to Revolutionize Wind Turbine Noise Reduction

October 8, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version