Monsters (2010) REVIEW

 

 “Doesn’t that kind of bother you, that you need something bad to happen to profit from it?”

 “You mean, like a doctor?”

As Gareth Edwards new movie ‘Godzilla’ comes out on Thursday (UK release), i thought i would watch and review his first feature film – Monsters. I will hopefully review the original Godzilla film (Gojira) and the other American Godzilla remake before my review of the new film is posted.

Monsters tells the story of a photographer named Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) as he is told by his publisher that he must bring his daughter home to him safely, because the area that she is in has been attacked by extraterrestrials. These aliens have been taken to earth after a NASA space probe crash lands in Mexico, and subsequently breaks down life around it.  People struggle to survive as America tries desperately to destroy the creature. 

The main characters Kaulder and Samantha Wynden are really the only substantial characters in the film, as it solely tracks them on their journey. They thankfully don’t disappoint in their roles and are easily watchable and very well-developed. Kaulder, as a photographer, constantly has a cynical outlook on life as he tells Sam that he didn’t start the tragedy, he just documents it, overtly trying to detach his emotions and feelings towards the horrific things he sees around him. But as the film progresses he is shown to be more than just a bumbling pessimist and is emotionally broken at certain times, not because of the monsters, but because of his family situation and the fact that his child cannot know that he is his father. Sam on the other had is shown to be less cynical and more naive. She is awestruck at some of the things that she sees and therefore doesn’t conceal her emotions, like Kaulder often does. Her personality is often concealed however, as it is clearly shown throughout that she is nervous around Kaulder, because of his apparent love towards her, and vise versa. 

The movie therefore focuses more on the humans than the monsters, which i loved. I’m not much of a monster movie guy, but the monster sub-plot and the main plot of Sam and Andrew really kept me intrigued. The Monsters however are beautifully realised as giant flying octopus looking beings.

As the movie progresses we learn more about the plight of the monsters and humans alike. Lots of social commentary on warfare and themes such as morality are present throughout and provide a deeper level of meaning to the piece. Although much the theme of the killing seemingly innocent alien beings and the morality of that is a cliche, it works, and it doesn’t hinder the film in any way. It actually makes that plot even more substantial than it is in most movies in which an alien comes to Earth, as it is played almost as very dark un-comical satire.

Above all else, this love story with monsters is a quality piece of low budget film-making, which obviously took a lot of effort and thought to make. It is strange that a film with such a simple story of basically saving and returning a metaphorical ‘princess’ has had such an effect on me. Aside from a few dull and forgettable scenes Monsters is a quiet masterpiece that i will definitely watch again.

9/10

 

 

Frank REVIEW

“With all his issues, 100% sanest cat I’ve ever met.”

Frank tells the story of Jon Burroughs (Domhnall Gleeson), a struggling musician in a sleepy English village who stumbles upon a band, named “Soronprfbs” in need of a keyboard player. He, as a keyboard player, decides to join the band and goes to live with them to record their latest album. As he works with them he realises that each member of the band is possibly mentally ill, or just extremely anti-conformist and that as much as he tries, he can never be like any of them. It is partly based on Frank Sidebotton – a comedic musician of the 1980’s. The eponymous character of Frank (Michael Fassbender) acts as the head of the band. And wears a giant plastic head on his head. So yeah, there’s that.

The film works on many levels. As a surprisingly up-beat comedy at times, as a dark sob-story at others, and always as an off-kilter satire on the indie music scene.

Frank as a film is very very funny, more so than i expected. The first half in particular shows Domhnall Gleeson to be a hilarious screen presence, as he tries to write his own songs by looking at normal, menial objects and random people on the street for inspiration. This section also introduces the interesting time signal of twitter. It shows the viewer Jon’s witty, pointless tweets as well as highlighting his amount of followers rising as time passes. Fassbender is pretty great as Frank, but as he is an A-list movie star, there was no intrigue as to who was behind the mask. If the director, Lenny Abrahamson, had cast an unknown actor a much needed mystery as to who Frank really was would have been present. This would have definitely elevated the movie in my opinion.

The rest of the cast is good, with Maggie Gyllenhall as Clara giving an inspired performance. This is the first time i have actually liked her as a screen presence, as in everything else she seems to be a constant know it all, and is always going to Harvard for some reason (Donnie Darko, Stranger than Fiction, and probably others). So she’s usually a walking cliche, but her incredibly aggressive, always angry persona in this has made me partly forget my dislike to her in other films. She’s dislikeable by intention in this. The depressive character of Don, the bands past keyboard player and now band manager, is well played by actor Scoot McNairy. He is one of the most interesting characters, because of his obvious depression and as he shows the darker side of indie music, as he is mentally insane. Or so we are told.

It is definitely a good looking movie, with lovely cinematography and excellent, simplistic visuals present throughout. I especially liked how the band rehearsals were shot, showing quirky angles and adding to the overall feel of these scenes. As for the script, it was witty and solemn at the same time, giving the excellent actors a lot to work with. Frank saying that he finds doing a particular thing inspiring is particularly hilarious. There is an abundance of great symbolism and a fantastic parallel also, which shows that Frank and Jon had similar upbringings and are not so different as one might think.

As the film progresses and the band deteriorates, there is a lot of bleak and strong emotions in the film. A slight twist in the story near the end left me feeling very sorry for the characters, but a lot of the emotions that run through the film left me cold. So much so that at the end i felt sad, but not to the extent that i should have been. This might have been because of slight underdevelopment of the characters (excluding Jon), but i’m really not sure. Two members of the band in particular were extremely underdeveloped, and i wanted to know more about them. Although, i didn’t need to, so that is a small criticism.

Overall, it was very good. There were a few minor issues, but these didn’t detract from the experience. I was left cold, but maybe that was the intention of the director. I don’t know. I would definitely recommend it to music buffs and film lovers alike.

8/10