MONOS (2019) FILM REVIEW

*****

15, 102 Mins

A 'Lord of the Flies' for the 21st century.

When watching 'Ad Astra' (2019) recently, I stumbled upon the conclusion that it was not a Sci-Fi movie, but a Nietzchean character study that just happened to be set in space. While - on the surface - 'Monos' (2019) seems about as far away from that film's intergalactic escapades as you can get, its central conceit remains the same. It may look like a run-of the-mill War movie, but Colombian-Ecuadorian film-maker Alejandro Landes has created a modern-day 'Lord of the Flies' to which the guerilla-ridden gunfire of the Amazon jungles provides a chilling backdrop.

We open on a mountainous rooftop where a group of rag n' bone teenagers play blindfolded football. They appear like any other children - excitable, energetic and brimming with wide-eyed wonder. Yet a dark secret lurks beneath the seemingly idyllic landscape. Thes are the titular "Monos" (Greek for "alone") - a band of child soldiers serving the sinister "Messenger" (Wilson Salazar) with cartoonish nicknames like "Rambo", "Dog", "Wolf" and "Boom Boom". They are tasked with guarding an American prisoner called "Doctora", but are more intrigued by the arrival of a sacrificial cow named Shakira who they are informed must be milked and cared for or it will explode. When The Messenger leaves, the kids are left to fend for themselves as they venture into the jungles where they begin to psychologically implode; experimenting with sex, drugs and Alcohol while jostling for heirarchal power and commiting the most horrific, homicidal acts...

Many critics have labelled 'Monos' the 21st century's answer to 'Apocalypse Now' (1979) (ironic considering 'Ad Astra' was similarly dubbed "Apocalypse Now in space"!) and Joseph Conrad's hallucinogenic horrors certainly loom ominously over the film's psychedelic psyche. 

Visually, the film resembles the imagined experience of a delirious Magic Mushroom trip with 1 million grams of LSD added to it. Like the psychotomimetic excesses of mind-bending folk horror 'Midsommar' (2019), there are multiple moments in which the camera tips entirely upside down before fluidly melting into wave-like ripples. It's a freaky gimmick which terrifyingly tricks audiences into believing they are genuinely tripping and thus provides a never-better "DON'T DO DRUGS" campaign considering the schizoid scenes of Shrooms intoxication the film's central characters indulge in.

There's no questioning the beauty of 'Monos's Amazon rainforest, but - where Terence Malick found beauty in the expressive elements of nature amidst Pacific warfare in 'The Thin Red Line' (1998) - Director Landes has no such sentiments when it comes to portraying War as soul-crushingly self-destructive. The scenery may be stunning, but Jasper Wolf's sinisterly palatable cinematography never shys away from capturing the carnage and destruction in all its unflinching brutality. Never has somewhere so beautiful looked so bloodthirsty with a truly repugnant scene involving the decapatation and implementation of a pig's head on a stick being the epitome of the gut-wrenching violence that splatters the screen. And yet - despite its gruelling realism - 'Monos' never fails to be hauntingly stunning.

There's no better metaphor for the film's scary sensousness than its extraordinary soundscape (an absolute must-win for Best Sound Editing at the forthcoming OSCARS). Meticulously melding the juddering sound of helicopter propeller blades with animalistic yowls juxtaposed against the ear-splitting blasts of machine guns, Mica Levi's score is a genuine modern masterpiece that engulfs viewers in the toxic brain activity of a PTSD-ridden mind - the most gruelling encapsulation of what it means to stare straight into the abyss only for it to stare straight back at you possibly ever recorded. As a result of such astonishing sound design, audiences feel every bullet and every inch of shrapnel lodged into one's skull with unparalleled force while the disorientating nature of the jungle is given a dizzying sense of confusion.

So what raises this film above simply a well-constructed War epic? The answer to that lies in its beguilingly naturalistic teenage performances. Particularly worthy of praise is former 'Hannah Montana' regular Moises Arias who exudes skin-crawling intimedation as musclebound group leader "Bigfoot" - his atrocious acts made all the more awful by his tragically young age. The standout, however, is unquestionably newcomer Sofia Buenaventura whose harrowing transformation from scared, innocent little girl to merciless killing machine as the tomboyish "Rambo" is a guaranteed heartbreaker and one that sums up 'Monos's unrelenting universal appeal.

If you were to dispose of the Columbian war setting and superimpose these poor, helpless children into an entirely different location - whether that be the flavellas of Rio de Janiero or the glitz and glamour of Hollywood - the film's raw power would remain the same. Like 'Ad Astra' is not a film about space, but one about psychology, 'Monos' is not really about War, but about childhood, adolescence and lost innocence. It is this moving coming-of-age arc that provides the beating heart of Landes's hypnotic vision and would leave William Golding balling...
​
​