At a glance, the story of Ana Lily Amirpour’s Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is relatively straightforward. When Mona Lisa Lee (Jean Jong-seo, Burning) escapes a mental institution, she finds herself alone and struggling to survive on the streets of New Orleans. From those simple beginnings, however, things become much more complicated, dreamy, and strange. In part, at least, because Mona Lisa has unusual abilities, she can control other people and make them do things.
