- Release year: 2022
- Director: Bertrand Bonello.
- Producers: Bertrand Bonello and Justin Taurand.
- Screenplay by: Bertrand Bonello.
- Cinematography by: Antoine Parouty.
Synopsis: a girl travels between reality and dreams during COVID lockdown, trying to figure out the meaning of life and not go insane due to isolation.
Shotgun Commentary: trippy thriller. You’ll probably feel like you understood around 60% of it, but that’s alright because the story is hypnotising regardless.
Review
Coma follows “The adolescent” (Louise Labèque) on her day-to-day life during the COVID lockdown. This includes not only her daily life, but also the stories she makes up in her head, the memories she relives through inanimate objects, and her dreams, in whatever format they may appear.
The addition of social media to her already chaotic mental processes makes it almost impossible for the audience to distinguish between reality and fiction. Much like The adolescent, we are in a suffocating haze with an unclear exit.
Too much
Coma’s narrative gets lost in its own imagery. There are a thousand ways to interpret what is going on, the visual metaphors are gorgeous, but sometimes they give off list vibes. The end result feels like the filmmaker wanted to use a lot of different resources and concepts, and they just made a list and ticked off the items one by one, without any regard of whether they made sense within the story or not. For an overthinker spectator this will be an asphyxiating overload of theories, ideas and possibilities.
In contrast, the beginning and the end of the film are sequences of random imagery with a voice-over that explains the point of the film. While this reprieve from the chaos is quite welcomed, and the images of a decaying nature are beautiful, these two sequences shouldn’t be necessary. In fact, they come across as a plaster that’s been put to fix up a haemorrhaging story.
The best part of the feature is the combination of formats. This technique is not new, but it never gets old either. The combination of influencer videos, with dolls, drawings, limbo, and real life is insane in the best of ways. What’s lacking in the actual script is mostly made up for with this captivating imagery. Additionally, the narrative has some great horror moments, which also make up for the disorderly storytelling. The tension and the imminent danger makes you forget all about the loose ends and questions you’ve asked yourself during the viewing.
Saved by the influencer
Julia Faure as Patricia Coma, the unnerving influencer who wants to teach people how to live, is absolutely brilliant. Coma is charismatic and stylish, cut out from the same mould all the other influencers are. Nevertheless, as the film progresses, the cracks in her personality and, indeed, her life, start to show. Her transition from leader to slave serves as commentary about social media and how it manipulates and controls audience and creators alike.
As for Louise Labèque in her role of The Adolescent, her performance is contradicting. On the one hand, the lack of variety in her expressions makes her character quite one-dimensional. On the other, the trance in which she’s living during the whole movie is enhanced by this not-all-there expression she sports, so it is tricky to determine whether her acting choices are the right ones or not. Ultimately, this is not the right movie to determine her talent.
All in all, Coma seems to want to say a lot, but none of the themes or takes proposed have any originality. The story telling is interesting, albeit haphazardly delivered, and the imagery is beautiful. The initial and final monologues that attempt to be special fall flat, but Coma’s monologues are a lot more engaging and intriguing.
Advice to take from this movie:
- The comparison between COVID lockdown and limbo is one of the most overused metaphors in all COVID-themed pieces.
- Who is watching The adolescent? Why? Are they real? Why do they appear at all if they bring absolutely nothing to the film?
- Sometimes it is better to say one thing properly than a million half things.
What’s your take? Have you watched Coma? How much of it did you understand? What are your thoughts? Tell me all about it in the comments section below, or leave a message in my contact page! For more reviews and cinema-related articles, check out the rest of my blog! 😀