A pretty incredible experience. It's puzzling and challenging in places but absolutely stunning to look at in others. A band of youths are seemingly militants at war and are only given instructions by their messenger who visits them every so often. The movie plays out in a fairy tale like way, without ever having a clear lead. There are hostage situations, violent deaths, jungle chases and mushroom trips. Jasper Wolf's cinematography is amongst the best this year no question. As is the nervy sounding score by Mica Levi. 'Monos' means monkeys in Spanish, and the group spend their time disaffected, being told what to do and generally leading a path to destruction.
References to Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Flies are inevitable, but it does feel as if the film is alluding towards a metaphor for the frailties of Colombia or other South American nations even though we're never even told where these events take place. The Director doesn't tell us whether these misfits kids are fighting for forces of good or evil, so perhaps that encapsulates the whole situation that youths find themselves in.
It's a brutal but beautiful look at youth in that part of the world. I hope lots of people see it.
Lord of the Flies meets Apocolypse Now meets Metal Gear Solid, but never really explores the themes it nabs from these prior works. Monos' gorgeous cinematography and impressive production value isn't lost on me, but I couldn't help but feel it was a visually pleasing but ultimately empty experience, opposing the almost bottomless pit of possibility the opening arc teases.
Child soldiers and forced recruitment from a young age is bad (duh), and we are shown how another unsuspecting group of children are to be brought into their barbaric fold through pure circumstance towards the end of the movie, but nothing is really said to explore this central crux outside of what the audience already know.
This atrocity is instead used as a canvas to showcase some fantastic film making and not much else. See it for its visual splendor and almost hypnotic rhythm if that's your jam, but don't expect any narrative exploration any deeper than a puddle.
A bleak allegorical study of war as seen through the eyes of children
Written by Alejandro Landes and Alexis dos Santos, and directed by Landes, Monos (from the Ancient Greek "μόνος" ("mónos"), meaning "alone") is an uncategorisable film that moves from a mountain top which is literally above the cloud-line to a stifling jungle to a raging river to the edge of a city in the midst of war, whilst thematically travelling all the way from a tight-knit group of soldiers who would die for one another to a last-man standing mentality bordering on insanity. Visually stunning, the plot is a little lacking, and sometimes the allegorical basis is a tad imprecise, but this is hugely ambitious and audacious filmmaking from a director we're going to be hearing a lot about in the coming years.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/R8ugV
A tough film to watch, but it is very well done. Not for everyone - the cow scene will upset many I imagine - but for those who can stick with it, a memorable time is guaranteed.
Monos is like falling in love with a crazy person and all of the intensity, beauty and madness that goes with it. While this political allegory is so far over everyone's heads the audience all had noise bleeds (even the title is ephemeral, the New York Times translates it as 'Monkeys' and the Guardian as 'Alone') this film is so gorgeous inside and out that it's easy to overlook it's obscurity.
Imagine the lords of the flies as child soldiers guarding a hostage and you have the basic story of Monos. Fortunately for director Alejandro Landes (and brilliant cinematographer Jasper Wolf) the child actors are as driven as the roles they play. Like your mad lover, you won't know what Monos is talking about but that won't stop you from falling for it hard.
A slice of life of a band of child (well, teenagers) soldiers in south america. The story itself is mildly interesting, but the evolution of the relationships between characters is good.
The most interesting part was the beginning, showing the daily life, training and indoctrination of the band that works for "the organization" and are holding an hostage. They also need to care for a cow, and it starts going bad when they drunkenly kill it. They behave like trained soldiers, but when they party or an issue occurs you can see their childish side.
After that comes questionning of authority and themselves, some rebellion, some killing. The dynamics of who chooses to lead, to obey, how far they're willing to disobey, or to try to get away from it, dissent with the organization leadership, the relationships between them, or with the hostage are pretty complex and well exploited
It's quite hard sometimes, notably the doctora willing to drown a kid to escape or their ruthless hunt for the one that got away, even if they kinda escaped the organization themselves.
Great point is the scenery and light work. Mountain, forest, river, it looks incredible the whole time.
Apart from that I suppose the message is that making children into soldier is bad, but hey, who could have guessed ?
Review by RedouaneBlockedParent2020-01-08T11:38:02Z
The message of the movie was really unclear, it felt like the filmmakers didn't stop and ask themselves "what do we want the viewers to feel in this scene or this other scene", so the narrative that was created in this 102 minutes lead to nothing.
I didn't care about the characters or the events because I was given no reason to, there was little given as background to the story (which is fine, great storytellers don't need voiceovers or walls of text telling you what are you watching) or the characters and their motivations, so I was really indifferent to these characters and what happened to them.
I didn't know if the movie wanted to say something about child soldiers, or wanted to be a story of survival of a hostage, or an exploration of empathy in an intense situation, or maybe it wanted to be all these things at once that it failed to be any of these things in a fulfilling manner.
Then the movie ended as it was just getting good. I was really surprised as the screen went black and the credits rolled in, I felt like there was still a third act in that story that would've at least taken this movie to a 7/10 at least, just by virtue of taking the story home and giving the viewers closure.
Eh, another one for the "Only if..." pile.