Many a film could be a scary story if you think about it hard enough. The uber-divisive Saltburn reads a bit like a monster movie funneled through the decadence and debauchery of a gothic thriller. This year’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You feels like one long panic attack. And Hedda, the latest from writer-director Nia DaCosta, is another psychological hornet’s nest cut from the same unassuming cloth.
Hedda is an adaptation of the classic play of the same name, which gave us what could be the first truly (and infuriatingly) complex anti-heroine. Its title character, Hedda Tesman, née Gabler, is a litmus test that so many fail — and DaCosta, reteaming with star Tessa Thompson, has great fun muddying the waters even further. Their Hedda is whip-smart, palpably lush, and deliriously wicked. It sets the scene in the late 19th century, but by tweaking crucial parts of Ibsen’s text, it’s much more modern than it has any right to be. Thompson and DaCosta ratchet up the tension of a story that already feels like a pressure cooker, turning Hedda the film into a diabolical psychological thriller, and launching Hedda the character into the pantheon of the monstrous feminine.
