Tense, gloomy, and full of gothic atmosphere, the film takes its name from St. Maud, a 10th-century German queen who was renowned for her acts of charity \u2014 in fact, after her husband died, she supposedly renounced her worldly possessions and \u201csquandered\u201d her noble family\u2019s fortune by aiding the poor. The film isn\u2019t about the actual saint, though: It\u2019s about a young nurse (Morfydd Clark) who decides to symbolically change her name from Kate to Maud after a religious awakening that occurs after she\u2019s forced to quit her job at a local hospital. The details of the events that led to Maud\u2019s resignation (or perhaps termination) are only hinted at via gruesome flashbacks interspersed throughout the film, but the gist is this: A patient died a horribly painful death under her care, and she ends up being forced to seek jobs as a personal care nurse in private homes. She sees signs of God\u2019s presence everywhere.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t take long for the viewer to notice that this particular Maud isn\u2019t exactly a saint, despite her extreme fanaticism and obsession with religious iconography. After spending a bit of time with her in her squalid flat and watching her run into an old colleague from her former hospital, we get a glimpse into the tortured, troubled mental state that has led her to give up her formerly wild ways. She\u2019s essentially traded in one set of extreme behaviors (booze, drugs, and casual sex) for another, attempting to reinvent herself and channel her alienation into a more socially acceptable form. She performs acts of care for the hospice patient she tends to \u2014 Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a cynical and elegant middle-aged woman who had been a big name in the art and modern dance worlds before being stricken with cancer \u2014 but she does so with judgment and disdain.<\/p>\n
Maud\u2019s obsession with saving Amanda\u2019s soul also seems to be linked to her growing jealousy of Amanda\u2019s reckless lover, Carol (Lily Frazer), who comes to the sprawling estate frequently to help Amanda drink her troubles away. Amanda softens toward Maude, mostly out of loneliness and a growing sense of concern for Maud\u2019s sanity; this deepening but eternally uneasy bond between the pair is a particular strong point in Glass\u2019s script, which occasionally mixes in moments of deadpan humor to keep things bearable. Maud has found meaning in her work with Amanda, so when their bond inevitably breaks down, she has another total breakdown, spiraling at first into acts of self harm and self flagellation before seeking solace in her old vices.<\/p>\n
Some viewers may be frustrated by the fact that Glass\u2019s script may seem to leave the events of its shocking conclusion open to interpretation. (Is Maud actually crazy? Has God actually been guiding her all along?) But it all comes down to one staggering final shot, lensed by cinematographer Ben Fordesman (previously known for his work on TV shows like The End of the F***ing World<\/em>) in a style Carl Theodor Dreyer himself would have loved \u2014 it\u2019s here that Glass clearly establishes herself as a director who can deliver; she\u2019s certainly one to watch in the future. (Screened at Fantastic Fest; release TBA)<\/em><\/p>\n Thorns and nails pressing into raw flesh, limbs twisting and contorting beyond the limits of nature, flames not-so-gently lapping at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":12669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,1416,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-festivals","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/crookedc.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGrade: B+<\/span><\/h3>\n
1 hr., 23 min.; not yet rated<\/h5>\n
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