“Coma” - Film Review
Bertrand Bonello’s name has been on the tip of the public’s tongue for his recent feature, The Beast, starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay. After a successful festival route, The Beast is finally making its way to theaters, but it’s not the only Bonello flick being released this month. Coma came as a surprise release before Bonello even began shooting The Beast, and he describes it as the final part of his trilogy on youth. 2016’s Nocturama, 2019’s Zombi Child, and 2022’s Coma make up Bonello’s examination of youthful fear, hope, and worry. Bonello dedicates Coma to his (as of 2022) eighteen-year-old daughter.
Coma is centered on a nameless teenage girl (Louise Labèque) who develops an obsession with a YouTuber named Patricia Coma (Julia Faure). Her videos are strange. They give off the aura of a self-help guru who may or may not be a scammer. Most of Coma takes place within the confines of the teenage girl’s room. She imagines her Barbie dolls having extravagant, scandalous lives, FaceTimes her friend Tess (Ninon François), and watches hours of Patricia Coma’s YouTube channel. What else could she be doing? It’s 2020, the peak of the lockdowns during Covid. As the days in isolation slowly move along without an end in sight, the teenage girl’s mental state devolves.
courtesy of Film Movement
Anyone familiar with Bonello’s body of work will not be surprised to learn that Coma is quite experimental. The film mixes mediums and doesn’t follow a cohesive, linear storyline. Even those who may not gravitate toward this genre of film should give Coma a chance because it manages to succinctly capture the state of limbo we all lived through in 2020. Coupled with the distinct loneliness is the listless feeling of being a teenager growing up in a world of uncertainty. The planet is on fire, wars are raging, we’ve never been more divided as humans, and the economy is tanking. How do you grow up with these fears on the horizon?
It’s not surprising that younger generations are feeling increasingly nihilistic, and Coma plays directly into that mentality. The film asks the audience and its characters if they believe in free will and choice, while offering a multitude of reasons to have no faith in our future. Despite that, Coma’s biggest strength is the way it maintains a sense of optimism. Amongst all the fear, darkness, and uncertainty, Bonello encourages his daughter to work toward a better day. Even in the depths of winter, there’s always spring around the corner where rebirth is possible. Coma isn’t a feel-good movie in the traditional sense, but there is an overwhelming belief that things could be better if we’d try.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, & YouTube. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.