Medusa
Music Box Films | Release Date: July 29, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
95
Film ThreatMichael Talbot-HaynesJun 20, 2022
Medusa is an electrifying work of art that elevates its already elevated pop influences, a transcendental tableau of the true-life horror of female oppression. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMarya E. GatesJul 29, 2022
Eliciting powerful performances from her two leads and striking visuals from cinematographer João Atala, “Medusa” casts its gaze at the hypocritical and violent world of purity culture with unflinching honesty that will leave the audience spellbound long after the credits roll. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJul 16, 2023
For all its multitudinous reference points, this remains very much Da Silveira’s movie – as distinct and pointed as Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night or Julia Ducournau’s Raw­ – a genre film with something to say, and a unique voice with which to say it. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 14, 2023
The oppressively neon musical numbers and ominous pastoral pronouncements that “secular government was a mistake” are more convincing than the film’s late swerve into Giallo terrain. But the writer-director’s ideas about women as religious enforcers, complicit in their own subjugation, are fascinating. Read full review
75
IndieWireKatie RifeJul 28, 2022
Da Silviera’s vision of bubblegum fascism is compelling, and Medusa sucks viewers in right away. Unfortunately, however, the film expends far more effort on aesthetics and world-building than it does on narrative. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 22, 2021
There’s plenty to like here: gorgeous cinematography—there’s an unforgettable shot during a power outage at the coma facility, where the generator attempts to flicker the small, rectangular lights along the walls of the main, symmetrical room—propulsive synth beats to go with the choir, and stellar performances that at some point all skew towards parody to really drive home the indoctrination angle before each awakening opens eyes to the truth. Read full review
70
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanJul 29, 2022
Though the religious component is written broadly, the impact is hardly more surreal than many elements of 21st-century reality. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganJul 28, 2022
The film acts as a giallo thriller, a modern update to Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames and the latest entry in Brazil’s anti-Bolsonaro fantasy canon. Yet for all of these fascinating themes and well-executed nods, Medusa still feels narratively slight. Read full review
70
Screen DailyDemetrios MatheouSep 22, 2021
Da Silveira sets a tone that nimbly flows between comedy, mystery and discomforting satire (the Pastor generally makes the skin crawl), though her occasional wink towards horror offers fun rather than frights, to the film’s detriment. Read full review
60
Little White LiesMarina AshiotiJul 14, 2023
Its strengths and richness lie more in boasting a potent mix of universality in its rebellion against entrapment within societal ideals of self-worth, as well as cultural specificity and pertinence apropos the impact that white evangelists have over the political landscape in modern-day Brazil. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 10, 2023
This really is a very strange film, and perhaps doesn’t quite cohere the way a more rigorously refined and redrafted screenplay might, but each of its exotic elements suggests a mounting delirium – exactly the kind of unacknowledged, displaced group frustration that grows and metastasises in a police state. Read full review
60
The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaJul 28, 2022
Though dressed in shock-value clothing, Medusa is also a straightforward character study, tackling issues like the scourge of Western beauty standards and the difficulties of leaving an abusive relationship along the way Read full review
60
VarietyDennis HarveySep 22, 2021
The audacity of de Silveira’s concept — in which enrollees at an upscale Christian college indulge in secret, moralizing vigilante mayhem — and her deliberately over-the-top aesthetic render Medusa a compelling mixed bag. It may miss the bull’s-eye, but not for lack of intriguing ideas or style. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfAug 11, 2022
What begins as a punchy, feminine-biting satire becomes fuzzy after the first act. It’s an admirable effort, but an overstuffed, demanding one as well. Read full review
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