‘Medusa Deluxe’ Review: One-Shot Hairdressing Murder Mystery Is an Elaborate, Backcombed Tease
variety.comGuy Lodge Film CriticIn “Medusa Deluxe,” the serpents aren’t in the hair, but all around it: a writhing, hissing collective of human predators slinking around the various parlors and platforms of a high-level hairdressing competition.
Most are venomous, and at least one is deadly, or so it seems when a star stylist is found, not just murdered but quite literally scalped, the night before his widely expected victory in the contest.
That’s the setup for British writer-director Thomas Hardiman’s splashy, hooky debut feature “Medusa Deluxe,” an arch, gossip-fueled murder mystery that delights more in rounding up its many unusual suspects than in any kind of logical, procedural detective work: Whodunnit isn’t a pressing question in a film where everyone is 100% that bitch.
It sounds good on paper, and looks great on screen, thanks in no small part to genius DP Robbie Ryan — who, following vertiginous collaborations with the likes of Andrea Arnold and Yorgos Lanthimos, finally gets to add a one-take movie to his résumé.
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