movie review coma 2020

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REVIEW: Coma (2020)

A man (Rinal Mukhametov) wakes in his apartment, only to find the world outside is a nightmarish maze of floating city blocks, web-like mesh where people and buildings used to be, and frightening oil slick demons marauding the streets. Rescued by a group of desperate survivors, the anonymous and amnesiac man learns he is trapped in the world of “Coma”, and cannot escape unless he wakes in the real world.

Writer/director Nikita Argunov has developed an impressive slice of direct-to-online cinema with  Coma . Its first half is dominated by some astonishing visual ideas and inventive action sequences, and its second by some intriguing ideas and revelations. It is hardly coy about its influences; it’s broken-up cityscapes draw heavily on Christopher Nolan’s similarly dream-like vistas in  Inception , while its cast of elaborately dressed rebels trapped in a simulation world is clearly inspired by the Wachowskis’  The Matrix.  There are other potential, less obvious candidates for inspiration too, such as the Pangs’  Re-Cycle  (2006), but all in all  Coma  feels like contemporary pulp cinema done right: the influences aren’t hidden, the film gives back as much to the culture as it takes, and the money is clearly front-and-centre on the screen. Its execution may lag a little behind its ambitions, but those ambitions are honest and emphatic enough to forgive any number of minor sins.

It is in the visuals that the film most excels. The city landscape of Coma consists of floating islands of half-ruined buildings, representing both generic and iconic landmarks of numerous cities. Gravity runs in conflicting directions. Illogical portals exist from one to another. Not only is this unusual world presented with a consistently high visual quality, it inspires some truly inventive sequences including a stunning shoot-out scene that takes the famous rolling corridor fight of  Inception  and expands it to a greater scale.

Mukhametov plays a straight-forward lead, and his supporting cast – including Lyubov Aksyonova, Anton Pampushnyy, and Milos Bikovic – provide solid back-up. It is not really an actor’s movie, however, with a much stronger emphasis (and directorial interest) on the visuals and the ideas. Viewers seeking an interesting and varied slice of eye candy will be most likely to embrace  Coma  on its reasonably solid merits. One drawback that may deter some: its Australian release at least (via indie distributor Eagle) provides an English dub only. To be fair it is a perfectly decent dub, but those craving the original Russian audio will be sadly disappointed.

The merits of  Coma  absolutely outweigh its drawbacks. While by no means a classic, it is an interesting and entertaining diversion for science fiction viewers looking for something new.

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One response to “review: coma (2020)”.

Seems it is available to rent or buy in Australia from online services such as Google Play and Apple TV, but isn’t included on any “free” (with subscription) services like Netflix, which is a shame.

https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/coma-2019

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Coma review – so brilliantly tense you’ll have to breathe into a paper bag

There are bad days, and then there are those where you ruin your life by taking on a local thug. This drama about a mild-mannered everyman’s fightback is compellingly jitter-inducing

O h, the tyranny of small decisions. Sometimes by the malevolent universe, deciding to pack all the crap it can into one short day. Sometimes by the individual, often in response to the dreadful day he or she’s had. Either way, the result can be spectacularly bad.

Not quite as bad, one hopes, as it quickly becomes for the central character in the new drama series Coma. Simon (Jason Watkins) is a mild-mannered everyman, making his quiet, unassuming way through life. On his way home from the supermarket one day he shakily confronts a group of thugs who are bullying a homeless man. They laugh and chase him off. He gets home to his wife and daughter to find his car has been scratched, his neighbour Harry (David Bradley) is as unfriendly as ever, and there is letter about his mortgage arrears waiting for him. Later, he chases off a group of lads looking as if they are about to steal a car outside his house. One of them, Jordan (Joe Barber), recognises him from the supermarket. Now Jordan knows where he lives. And he promises to come back every night. Simon calls the local police but just gets a recorded message. The only practical measure he can take is to install a doorbell camera. But when Jordan comes calling the next night – and obliquely threatens Simon’s daughter – the camera records what is possibly Simon’s first ever unguarded moment. In fear, panic and rage he loses control and punches Jordan, who falls to the ground and stops breathing, as a pool of blood slowly gathers around his head. Simon administers CPR and the police, on their way to another incident stop to help and call an ambulance. It is assumed that Simon is a good Samaritan, and he tells them that he saw an indistinguishable figure run off as he arrived.

What unfolds is a similarly well-marked, wholly convincing accretion of detail that soon becomes excruciatingly tense in its authenticity. Jordan’s criminal father Paul (Jonas Armstrong) comes round to the house a few days later – ostensibly to thank him for saving Jordan’s life, as the CPR means he is now “only” in a coma and may survive – but in reality to pump him for further information about what happened that night. It is the aura of menace (you can almost see it coming off Armstrong in waves), rather than any missteps Simon may or may not be about to make, that is so terrifying. The scenes between them are those of a natural predator scenting its prey – and are almost unbearable to watch. Watkins excels in “ordinary” roles – no fake jitters here, just a deep and honest terror of the man he’s with and the situation that is rapidly getting further and further out of hand. There are a few moments – especially when he is with his impregnably arrogant young boss (who was once Simon’s trainee – one of many touches that evoke Simon’s lifetime of small humiliations) – when you wonder if Coma is going to veer into Falling Down territory. And, God, how you do long for poor Simon to rise, Michael Douglas-like, and take his vengeance against everyone, on behalf of us all. But Coma gives us these moments only to frustrate us and underline the fact that Simon’s life has always been a series of dying falls.

Coma keeps the humanity central to the story, never letting it be overwhelmed by the machinations of plot, as Simon’s defensive lies and accidental slip-ups accrue. With evidence against him mounting, the police and Paul’s suspicions gradually increase, as Harry muddies the waters . When Simon’s wife Beth (Clare Skinner – an actor who, like Watkins, specialises in making the ordinary mesmerising) becomes involved, the pressures build and the noose begins to tighten and options begin to close down.

That said, it’s not just Simon who excites our sympathy. As Paul and Jordan’s backstory is sketched in, this is not quite the black and white, hero-v-villains story it first seems to be. The investigating officer, too – DS Kelly Evans, played by Kayla Meikle – is notable for her weary kindness as she hunts for the truth, instead of the brittle cynicism or maverick tendencies we have come to expect from such a figure in such a tale.

If you can watch even the first episode of this all in one sitting, you have my great respect. I had to keep breaking off to breathe into a paper bag. By the second I was hiding behind the sofa. But at least I know now never to buy a Ring doorbell, or enrage my grumpy neighbour by demanding an occasional “Hello” from him in the middle of a police investigation. The mild-mannered need to stay in their box. We are not designed for lashing out. No good ever comes of it.

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Review: COMA, The Russians Are Coming to Take You Away to a New World

Rinal Mukhametov, Lyubov Aksyonova, Anton Pampushnyy and Konstantin Lavronenko star in the Russian sci-fi adventure, directed by Nikita Argunov, and now available On Demand.

Here a coma, there a coma. Everyone's in a coma nowadays!

In 1978, I saw and enjoyed Michael Crichton's Coma , which I wrote about earlier this year . In 2004, I saw and enjoyed Law Chi-leung's Koma , for which I wrote the program note when it played at AFI Fest . (For the record, others, including this site's founder and editor, Todd Brown, did not like it as much as I did . They were all wrong, of course.) Now comes a new Coma , this one hailing from Russia.

Nikita Argunov, an experienced visual effects artist, makes his feature directorial debut, and also shares screenwriting credit with Aleksei Grawitski, and Timofei Dekin. Like the Chinese adventure Double World , which recently arrived on Netflix , Coma is the type of film that yearns to be seen on the biggest screen possible with an audience in a large cinema, everyone admiring all the cool visuals and forgetting the narrative, because narratives don't matter so much in movies like this.

As I've written before about the trailer , Coma is a fun, trippy thing to spend a few minutes watching. Available now in its full, feature-length glory, it's er, still trippy, though the fun starts to wear off as the explanations begin.

In essence, this Coma feels like a disparate collection of graphic art created by Dutch artist M.C. Escher on a particularly bad bender. The film's protagonist -- never identified by name -- wakes up in a world that makes no sense to any logic-inclined brain, filled with images whisked away, tossed hither and thither, and plastered on the sky in no particular order. After a few, extremely disorienting action scenes, the hero is told that everyone in this particular existence is in a coma, and the world is composed of random memories from these coma-riddled people.

Strangely enough, the world is made up mostly of men, specifically, Eastern European men, though a few white women are allowed to partake in subservient roles. No persons of color can be seen, nor, for that matter, do children nor people who are any older than the grey-haired fellow who is said to have lived the longest in the world -- 15 years.

It's all very suspicious, but not terribly interesting, akin to getting stuck at a loud party where a boisterous, drunken Russian has pinned you against a wall to tell you the story of his boring relatives, over and over again.

The visuals, however, are the film's saving grace, filled as they are with grand monuments and complex buildings and highways that crisscross the sky in opposing dimensions. It's all quite marvelous to watch for a few minutes at a time, and I only wish I could have seen it in a lovely big movie house, where I could disappear into the images and enjoy a glut of eye candy.

Then, afterwards, I could exchange shrugs of disbelief with my viewing companions, as we all tried to piece together what it was, exactly, that we had just seen.

The film is available as of Tuesday, August 4, 2020, on Blu-ray and DVD, via Dark Sky Films and Capelight Pictures. I watched the film for review purposes on a screening link, which was presented with a dubbed English audio track.

More about Coma (2019)

• Bertrand Bonello's COMA Heads for U.S. Release
• New York 2023 Review: THE BEAST, Hefty Ideas Swirl Around, Stylized to Perfection
• ESTADO COMA (KOMA) Trailer: Trippy Action Adventure in an Unreal World

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Coma Review

01 Jan 1978

113 minutes

Hospital life, death and hanky panky, are injected with a massive dose of suspense when doctor Genevieve Bujold unviels a murder-for-body-parts conspiracy.

Michael Douglas is Bujold's doctor boyfriend, who she suspects may be in on the plot and Tom Selleck stars as a bit-part beefcake patient with desirable organs.

A chiller with an edge, Coma capitalised superbly on the post-Watergate paranoia rampaging through the States, playing on the fear that your killer doesn't always come bearing an axes or chainsaws, but as a smiling doctor in a white coat.

Crichton's past in the medical profession help him to create a believable setting and cast of characters from a game adaptaiton of Robin Cook's successful novel, almost two decades before his ER hit the small screen.

And Bujold gives the finest performance of her career, closely resembling Sigourney Weaver's Ripley (Alien) as a woman forced to be strong beyond her wildest imagination, until a rather mundane plot twist does its best to send her from heroine to damsel in distress.

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‘Coma’ Review: A Labyrinthine Lockdown Movie

Bertrand Bonello’s latest horror film, dedicated to his teenage daughter, pushes the boundaries of the conventional pandemic movie.

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By Beatrice Loayza

“Coma,” a pandemic-themed horror movie by the director Bertrand Bonello, takes its title from one of its two cloistered characters living in France during the coronavirus lockdown. Patricia Coma (Julia Faure) is a social media influencer whose channel is made up of surreal how-to videos, philosophical monologues and weather reports (though it doesn’t matter, “you can’t go out, anyway,” she explains).

Watching Patricia is an unnamed teenage girl (Louise Labèque), moody and introspective as she spends her days in confinement glued to the screen.

Don’t be misled by the more conventional pandemic scenes, like the teenager’s video chats with friends — “Coma” pushes the boundaries of the so-called lockdown movie with its thrilling, chaotic form.

At first, it seemingly tracks the teenager’s online interactions: Patricia’s uncanny missives and a smutty sitcom played out by stop-motion dolls. We also see the teenager’s recurring nightmare, in which she’s trapped in a purgatorial forest, as well as surveillance footage in which she appears to be out in the streets.

With Bonello’s fluid editing, the gradual spillover between scenes and intrusions by reality itself — then-President Trump’s tweets play a role — seems to flatten time. That’s certainly become a cliché in films like “Locked Down” or Bo Burnham’s “Inside,” but Bonello’s experimental approach brings a new level of desperation to this compressed version of reality.

As a relatively short, minimalistic production, “Coma” plays like an amuse-bouche to Bonello’s recent epic “The Beast,” about the tragedy of characters who lack free will. Patricia is a kind of evangelist for this worldview. She sells an electronic memory game, like Simon, that the teenager plays to kill time, but, as if by some kind of dark magic, cannot seem to lose.

The film begins and ends with a subtitled message written by Bonello to his daughter, to whom he dedicated the film. It acknowledges the unique despair of her generation — of children accustomed to climate change and school shootings; their best years spent online, trapped at home during a global pandemic.

This message is also what makes “Coma” surpass the trappings of a lockdown movie: It may be anchored to that period, but it speaks to an existential crisis that defines many right now.

Coma Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. In theaters.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Medical thriller is smart, but too tense for younger kids.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Ultimately, evildoers are punished, and their crim

Main character Susan Wheeler is intrepid, intellig

Many shots of gory medical procedures, including a

One character is romancing another to advance his

Some curse words: "hell," "ass,&quo

Adult characters are shown drinking at a bar at a

Parents need to know that Coma is a tense medical thriller that could spark hospital- or doctor-related worries in younger viewers. There are many views of graphic and gory medical procedures, including an emergency procedure performed on a choking grade-school boy as his mom cries hysterically and piteously…

Positive Messages

Ultimately, evildoers are punished, and their crimes aren't glamorized, though viewers may come away with the idea that many in the medical profession are greedy and amoral (despite the fact that there are dependable and even noble characters), and younger viewers may wind up thinking they shouldn't trust doctors.

Positive Role Models

Main character Susan Wheeler is intrepid, intelligent, and brave. Her character is more fleshed out than those of the villains', who are a little one-note -- they're concerned only with glory and power and not patients' health and safety. The cast is nicely gender balanced, with both good and bad male and female characters, but not very racially diverse.

Violence & Scariness

Many shots of gory medical procedures, including a procedure performed on a crying, choking grade-schooler. Many other scenes of people lying in bed motionless and covered with tubes, as well as hanging, motionless bodies. The main character is physically assaulted and choked in a dark alley.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

One character is romancing another to advance his career; the two are shown nude in a hot tub together (no sensitive body parts are shown). One character sends another a text reading "Did you screw her?" after he spends the night with a woman.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some curse words: "hell," "ass," "bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adult characters are shown drinking at a bar at a work party; no one acts drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Coma is a tense medical thriller that could spark hospital- or doctor-related worries in younger viewers. There are many views of graphic and gory medical procedures, including an emergency procedure performed on a choking grade-school boy as his mom cries hysterically and piteously beside him. There are also creepy shots of hanging, motionless, dead-looking bodies and people lying near death in hospital beds, festooned with tubes. The main character is physically assaulted and choked in a dark alley and watched on surveillance cameras. Sexual content includes characters dipping into a hot tub nude together (though no body parts are shown). There's some cursing, including a scene where the main character is sneeringly called a "bitch." Characters drink at a work party, but no one acts drunk. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

COMA, A&E's four-hour update of the 1978 medical thriller starring Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas (itself based on the novel by Robin Cook), has the same basic plotline as the original: Susan Wheeler ( Lauren Ambrose ) is an ethical medical professional up against some decidedly evil doctors intent on deliberately causing comas in patients for nefarious reasons. After an acquaintance falls into a persistent vegetative state following a routine surgery, Wheeler discovers that far too many patients at her hospital end up in comas far too often. They're then transferred to the mysterious Jefferson Institute under the care of menacing researcher Mrs. Emerson ( Ellen Burstyn ). After inquiries at her hospital result in static from the imperious chief of psychiatry, Agnetta Lindquist ( Geena Davis ), and chief of staff Theodore Stark ( James Woods ), as well as some mysterious personal reprisals, Wheeler decides she must know the truth. With the help of hunky supervisor Dr. Mark Bellows ( Steven Pasquale ), Wheeler starts poking around at the Jefferson Institute. What they find goes beyond anything they'd feared.

Is It Any Good?

Coma is star-studded, tensely plotted, and directed with fast-moving brio by Ridley Scott ( Alien ) and brother Tony Scott ( Top Gun ). It's both creepy and absorbing, particularly for viewers who are already suspicious of what doctors could be doing behind those swinging hospital doors. Those who've seen the 1978 film or read Cook's novel may recall that the original villains were after coma victims' body parts. The new miniseries smartly updates this plot point, since -- as Dr. Bellows says -- we're on the verge of being able to grow organs in a lab, there's no profit in harvesting organs. Thus the evil doctors are now after another objective entirely, one that will strike many modern viewers as pretty disturbing.

Also disturbing, particularly to young viewers: The many shots of graphic, bloody medical procedures, eerie suspended bodies, and the heroine creeping down shadowy hospital corridors. It's easy to imagine Coma igniting a doctor or hospital fear, so think twice before you watch with younger children. Older kids or teens who are equipped to handle the tension may enjoy the brisk drama, which is light on confusing medical jargon and mostly jettisons the 1978 Coma 's knotty questions about medical ethics for more straightforward horror-movie plotting. Parents, meanwhile, will like seeing old movie-star faves like Woods and Richard Dreyfuss again. Coma is good watch-together fare for families with older kids, particularly from the perspective of a comfortable, safe couch.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why the events that occur in Coma couldn't take place in real life. Did you know that hospitals are owned by shareholders, overseen by boards, and monitored by the American Medical Association? Why do you think all this supervision is necessary?

Can you see any differences in the way the villains of Coma are depicted compared to the heroes? Does the director use different camera angles? Is the music different? What about the dialogue, make-up, or costumes?

Many thrillers and horror movies feature scenes with hospitals and doctors. Why is this scenario so scary to viewers? Why would an evil doctor be scarier than, say, an evil baker?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : October 30, 2012
• Cast : Ellen Burstyn , Geena Davis , Lauren Ambrose
• Director : Mikael Salomon
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Sony Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 240 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : October 8, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Film review: coma (koma) (2019).

Adrian Halen 08/15/2020 Film Reviews

After a mysterious accident a young architect comes back to his senses in a very odd world. He must find out the exact laws and regulations of it as he fights for his life and keeps on looking for the exit to the real world.

Reapers strange worlds, fantasy realms, and a heavy coating of Mad max-like apocalyptic living, you’ve got yourself a helping of the Russian action, adventure fantasy epic called Coma (aka Koma ). It’s probably the most unique film I’ve seen in awhile and yet somehow it felt like “Dr. Strange”,” Inception “, “Harry Potter” and a few other films came together into a new mash up of sorts. Though in all respect, I stand by the statement that Coma is a unique and original concept taking the element of being in a coma” to a whole new level.

Now you can’t really say it’s a spoiler since the title of the film is titled “Coma” (in addition to the rather exceptional trailers they’ve been showing). The idea here is that when people go into coma’s they actually reside inside their mind within a common place, a world that is filled with scenes from memories and yet is in a constant state of change and deterioration. The environment is not one person’s perspective but rather all the occupants perspective intertwined.

With that said, time works different here with many of the occupants now part of various groups and combat teams. Some areas take on 2 different views while others are upside down, sideways and twisted making for a rather stunning visual dispatch of CGI effects constantly providing foundation to the background. You might say that gravity, time, and structure work differently here.

Our main stars here consist of Viktor / The Architect (Rinal Mukhametov) (a new resident to the coma zone) and Anton Pampushnyy, who plays the role of group leader Phantom. Phantom shows Victor the ropes while revealing the complexities of this new reality he is in. As it is stated, once you leave your coma you are back in the real work occupying your body. Until then you are part of the evolution of this uniquely fantastic new word. The 2 of them are part of a group consisting of characters: Yan, Gnom, Tank, Fly, Spirit, Kabel and Astronomer. Viktor is a suffered genius architect who’s ideas were shunned in the real world as not being practical.

As the occupants of coma work, battle, and protect what they have, they are constantly under the threat of what they call: “Reapers”. Reapers are dark entities that are constantly consuming the world and occupants they get close enough to. They are described as the result of the body fighting with the fact that it is under coma while the subconscious tries to return to the living.

Coma is rather odd, but yet cool in its own interpretation.

Through the entire film we are submerged into an FX-based alter reality. Like the Matrix, there is always a parent reality that overshadows all however “coma” does a great job getting to that particular realization. The action here is kept fun and thrilling per use of wire harness jump shots and CGI tricks combined with a pretty cool science fiction experience. I love the fact that this aspect of the mind and it potential is explored. So much that it offers up that basic questioning of …”is your prime reality really the one you want to live in?

Russian fantasy films are unique and oftenly quite odd, while still refreshing in concept and effects work. In fact, the FX work is so impressive I wondered why this film never made it to theatres. Then again I have seen some very impressive work come from Russia that also went straight to digital.

Director Nikita Argunov was also involved in the heavily FX driven film “Guardians (2017)”. Though that film didn’t fair well by critics, it still is arguably visually stunning. Such in the same, Coma carries that visual tradition to an all new impressive level (make sure to check out the trailer for s sneak peek!)

Coma is a “must see” and one own especially if you are fans of some of the before mentioned films like “Inception”. The team here did a great job at showing us that Russian films are ones to keep an eye on when anticipating stellar science fiction pieces.

Tags 2019 Anton Pampushnyy Coma Koma Konstantin Lavronenko Leonid Timtsunik Lyubov Aksyonova Milos Bikovic Nikita Argunov Polina Kuzminskaya Rinal Mukhametov Rostislav Gulbis Vilen Babichev

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Coma (2020), directed by nikita argunov.

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Vague Visages

Movies, tv & music • independent film criticism • soundtrack guides • forming the future • est. 2014, review: bertrand bonello’s ‘coma’.

Vague Visages’ Coma   review contains minor spoilers. Bertrand Bonello’s 2022 movie features Julia Faure, Louise Labèque and Ninon François. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews , along with cast/character summaries , streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings .

Less than a month into the COVID-19 lockdown, Hollywood swiftly greenlit several projects about life in the pandemic. Several of such films, such as the Anne Hathaway movie Locked Down (2021), were shamelessly rushed into production and released the second restrictions could allow. Amidst this wave, French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello hurriedly made Coma , a 2022 Berlinale premiere which invokes the anxieties and isolation of lockdown in a fragmented, hallucinatory manner. Shot on a low budget and largely within the director’s own home, the 82-minute film stars Louise Labèque as an unnamed teenager whose obsession with YouTuber Patricia Coma (Julia Faure) affects her already loosened grip on reality.

Bonello’s unusual hybrid of essay aesthetics and existential surrealism feels all the richer when considering the recent U.S. premiere of his 2023 film, The Beast . In the early stretches of Coma, the director depicts lockdown boredom at its most grounded, showing his teenage protagonist falling down endless YouTube rabbit holes and landing on a series of videos by Patricia Coma in which she promotes a device called The Revelator. The Vlogger’s videos all have an uneasy undercurrent, utilizing the format to offer offbeat critiques of society, but none more so than her marketing of a device which she proclaims will remove any illusion of free will from the user. The product has four buttons, which light up in elaborate patterns that the user must copy, to the point that mimicking them becomes second nature — which appears, at first, to be nothing more than an allegorical illustration of the powerlessness and hopelessness of lockdown.

Coma Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’

Coma recontexualizes a recurrent theme in science fiction, recalling Ted Chaing’s 2005 short story What’s Expected Of Us , in the way it hints that a societal unravelling could be provoked by any device which appears to have the ability to second-guess human nature. This pessimistic view of free will is shared by The Beast , which had already been written prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. As for Coma , the film exposes an artist who was looking to explore their growing preoccupations at a time when they were unable to make their next project, due to forces beyond their control. If it provokes a feeling of anxious helplessness within the viewer, then it’s not just a reflection of an uncertain moment in our shared history, but also of Bonello’s own fears as an artist during a period where the very prospect of making a movie was stalled by similar forces. The auteur theory may suggest that the artist is the driving force behind any movie; however, Bonello appears quick to suggest that there are higher powers which predetermine the very nature of creation.

Coma Review: Related — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘Turtles All the Way Down’

Nocturama , Bonello’s 2016 film about disenfranchised Parisian young adults who co-ordinate terrorist attacks with no clear motive, functions as a companion piece of sorts to Coma , if not an equally nihilistic mirror image. Both movies are studies of young characters who want to be free of the oppressive inevitabilities of modern life, pitched at the most drastic opposing ends of the spectrum, with unnamed protagonists retreating further into a self-imposed limbo.

Coma Review: Related — Know the Cast: ‘The First Omen’

As with the antiheroes of Nocturama , or the incel killer played by George MacKay in the 2014-set portions of The Beast , the darkness within Coma’s young protagonists’ is brought to the surface with a disarming casualness. Two years after the original premiere, Bonello’s film exists as a despairing time capsule. It manages to directly conjure up the anxieties of communicating with the wider world entirely through a screen, with the delineation between reality and hallucinatory nightmares functioning as the strongest and most evocative depiction of lockdown culture thus far.

Coma Review: Related — Soundtracks of Television: ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’

Whereas the aforementioned Locked Down tries to ground itself as a time capsule in the broadest sense, context from the wider world is used sparingly in Coma . One of the animated stop-motion interludes — one aspect of the film which doesn’t particularly work — features several presidential gags about Donald Trump. Elsewhere, a Zoom conversation abruptly ends in a manner seemingly designed to recall the wave of independently produced Zoom-themed horror films — namely Rob Savage’s cult sensation Host (2020), which became a mainstream news story at a time when good news was notably lacking.

Coma Review: Related — Know the Cast & Characters: ‘The Morning Show’

Ultimately, Coma  conjures up the spirit of 2020 like no other movie thus far. Through its unwieldy structure and genre delineation, Bonello’s film often feels every bit as disorienting as it was to scroll through social media timelines during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alistair Ryder ( @YesitsAlistair ) is a film and TV critic based in Manchester, England. By day, he interviews the great and the good of the film world for Zavvi, and by night, he criticizes their work as a regular reviewer at outlets including The Film Stage and Looper.

Coma Review: Related — Soundtracks of Cinema: ‘The Bubble’

Categories: 2020s , 2024 Film Reviews , Drama , Fantasy , Featured , Film , Movies , Mystery

Tagged as: 2022 , 2022 Film , 2022 Movie , Alistair Ryder , Coma , Drama Movie , Fantasy Movie , Film Actors , Film Actresses , Film Critic , Film Criticism , Film Director , Film Explained , Film Journalism , Film Publication , Film Review , Film Summary , Journalism , Julia Faure , Louise Labèque , Movie Actors , Movie Actresses , Movie Critic , Movie Director , Movie Explained , Movie Journalism , Movie Plot , Movie Publication , Movie Review , Movie Summary , Mystery Movie , Ninon François , Rotten Tomatoes , Streaming

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