Everything about The Testament of Ann Lee feels like an ever-escalating iteration of The Onion’s old Stan Kelly cartoon in which a “sicko” standing in the window goes, “Yes … ha ha ha … yes!!” Now that the trailer is out, there’s not a “Yes … ha ha ha … yes!!” loud enough. Mona Fastvold’s third feature film is a historical musical starring Amanda Seyfried as the founder of the Shaker movement, an 18th-century religious sect that believed ecstatic dance (or shaking) was the most powerful form of worship. Our own critic called it “one of the strangest musicals ever made.”
Fastvold directed and co-wrote the film alongside her partner, Brady Corbet, whose strange period epic The Brutalist was one of last fall’s most discussed and divisive films. The duo write all their films together, though Fastvold’s work is a little more grounded by comparison — or, at least, up until this new one. The teaser is light on plot and heavy on stomp-clapping (topical), cutting between dance numbers and snippets from colonial life. Seyfried looks incredible: raw, immense, and passionate. It’s kind of crazy this is her first musical since absurdist masterpiece Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. She’s joined by a brooding Christopher Abbott (who is great in Fastvold’s last feature, The World to Come), Lewis Pullman, and Thomasin McKenzie, who appears to be blind in one eye. Fastvold shows us religious tableaus coming to life set to Daniel Blumberg’s arrangements of Shaker spirituals. The Testament of Ann Lee could wind up being the best thing to happen to “hey-ho” music this decade. Frankly, the whole thing looks awesome, so put on your bonnet and get ready to move.
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