Film Review: Monsters and Men

"Cities Are Gonna Keep Burning. Kids Are Gonna Keep Getting Shot. And Cops Are Gonna Keep Getting Off..."

With the Academy Award nominations now released into the steely glances of the general public, the success and critical admiration of Spike Lee's excellent BlackKklansman seems to have resulted in succession of interesting, ideas based political dramas with a key central narrative regarding the impact of race relations across contemporary American society. Joined together at the hip by rising star, John David Washington, Monsters and Men, the big screen debut from American filmmaker, Reinaldo Marcus Green, follows a very familiar path to Lee's 2018 drama by focusing on a increasingly topical discussion and confronting it upon the big screen. With a core central narrative which immediately brings to mind last year's The Hate U Give, Green's movie follows three different perspectives following the shooting of an unarmed black male on the streets of downtown New York. Loosely inspired by the death of Eric Garner back in 2014, a cigarette seller who resisted arrest and subsequently died within a police officer's chokehold, all of which was filmed by an onlooker on his mobile phone, Monsters and Men is an interesting, very well made and thought-provoking drama with a trio of excellent and thoroughly convincing central performances. 

Following a very similar narrative pathway to to Barry Jenkins' outstanding 2017 drama, Moonlight, Monsters and Men follows three very different male characters who are each bound together by a crippling desire for change in a society which makes such drastic decisions either increasingly difficult or incredibly dangerous. Beginning with Anthony Ramos' (A Star is Born) street savvy, Manny, the film benefits from taking the time to develop each leading character whilst the background noise of the underlying central message boils from underneath, and with an opening thirty minutes which ends with Manny's role in the film's key set piece, the transition from Ramos to Washington (BlackKklansman) is expertly done and exhibits a craft of filmmaking not many big screen debutants would be able to pull off. With the introduction of Washington as Dennis, a observant and dedicated local Police Officer, it is undoubtedly his portion of the film which manages to emit the highest degree of drama, with his conflicted nature as an officer of the law binding him to a make a final decision regarding his position as a black man in a predominantly white geographical area which is both difficult and understandable from the point of view of the audience. With two standout scenes from Washington's own act including an emotional and iconic basketball scene and a dinner discussion regarding the politics of policing, it does comes as a slight shame that the final act involving Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s (It Comes at Night) Zee is rather quite plodding and at times, particularly dull, but with a dedication to the screenplay from each of the three leading actors and a well handled sense of preachiness which failed to annoy or disturb the drama, Monsters and Men is a ideas ridden cinematic debut from a filmmaker with obvious raw and exciting talent.  

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: Ingrid Goes West

"Hashtag: I Am Ingrid..."

In a week in which every single cinema in the county has been asked to cram its' screens with the toxic waste of Justice League, thank the heavens for a film in the ilk of Ingrid Goes West, an interesting, blackly comic contemporary stalker drama with a cracking lead performance from Legion star, Aubrey Plaza as the titular social media obsessed Ingrid Thorburn. Directed and written by big time debutant Matt Spicer, the movie depicts an Instagram fixated dreamer who relocates to Los Angeles after the death of her mother in order to seek out Elizabeth Olsen's social media star, Taylor Sloane and become part of her excessively independent lifestyle which she shares with Wyatt Russell's hipster husband, Ezra. Beginning with an opening act which straight away highlights the aggressive nature of Ingrid's obsession and to what end she may go to in order to combat her rage and discomfort at being isolated in a world riddled with people's wishes to be noticed, Ingrid Goes West goes on to explore the contemporary issue of social media excess and the notion of a life based solely around the viewing of society through a small shiny screen.  

With Black Mirror vibes aplenty and the likes of Single White Female a sure inspiration, with a name drop in the narrative necessary to cement such, Spicer's sure footed direction allows the movie's key players to bring all round top notch performances, from O'Shea Jackson Jr's Batman obsessed screenwriter to Billy Magnussen's hateful steroid fueled junkie, all of whom acting as catnip for Plaza's character's downfall into complete and utter obsession with a character who is the epitome of everything wrong with society's quest for avocado on toast and early twentieth century sociological literature. Whilst Spicer's movie does involve elements of jet-black comedy and ironic societal comments, most of Ingrid Goes West's healthy ninety minute runtime is played particularly straight faced, accumulating in a concluding act which although is admiral in what it's attempting to say, doesn't exactly pay off, but with a brilliantly kooky and unpredictable leading performance from Audrey Plaza, Ingrid Goes West is a highly enjoyable ideas laden social drama which reminds that you don't always need a big budget to win an audience around. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Witch

"Mother, I've Brought A Book, Will You Look At It With Me..?"

Wherein many believe the epitome of modern-day horror movies consist solely of long scenes of tedious boredom, offset with the occasional and wholly meaningless jump-scares, there still remains the chosen few who believe it takes a whole lot more to accomplish something of which many have failed to do over the course of the past few years in particular; make a damn good horror movie. Sure, there have been the few exceptions which break the mould with The Babadook and the best Ben Wheatley film to date, Kill List being strong contenders for scariest movies of the decade so far, yet far too many concede to the money-making formula of jumpy scares over atmosphere and plot. What a massive and overly joyous surprise it is then to have witnessed the creepy, tense, overly oppressive and deliciously dark horror that is The Witch, a stunning debut from first-time director Robert Eggers who in his quest to create a realistic tale of witchcraft has indeed created the most disturbing and terrifying motion picture in years. Watch it with caution...

After being excommunicated and exiled from a New England Puritan Church plantation, William and his family swiftly move to a new home in the realms of a forest, one in which leaves them with dying crops and strange occurrences, most strikingly, when their youngest child goes missing at the hands of a unknown entity deep in the forest. Hooked already? Good, as that's all you are going to get with The Witch, a film which indeed forces you to make up your own decisions regarding what you witness on screen whilst attempting to get incredibly deep under your skin and stay there during your pitch black walk back home, conscious of that slight movement in the corner of your eye. Although jump scares aren't the primary concern of the film, there are sheer moments of horror throughout the film's 90 minute runtime, scenes in which enlighten the director's love of The Shining and The Wicker Man, whilst the gorgeous cinematography and dark, oppressive colour palette only add to the film's sense of sheer dread. With the scariest goat in movie history at its' core, The Witch is a horror movie fan's dream. Check it out and beware... SHE'S A WITCH!

Overall Score: 9/10