Monsters and Men

Watch "Fruitvale Station" (2013) instead of this rather tedious picture about police brutality. "Fruitvale Station" has got much more gut power and a far better coherent story about police brutality. The problem with "Monsters and Men" is that it force feeds a righteous message about police brutality. Everybody knows there is police brutality, but that fact doesnt make this movie interesting by simply repeating over and over again that the police are bad and that the victims are saints, using violins and soft focus photography. Too many violins at specific scenes felt forced. I dont like it when I get cued to feel sentimental NOW and NOW, because of a sudden overdose of violins and soft focus photography when a dad is playing with his children.

There is no real drama either, which is remarkable because the subject of police brutality has tons of it available, but the director somehow managed to turn this interesting subject of police violence into a somewhat tedious story. It starts out promising, but it is definitely lacking punch in the middle, because suddenly the leading character gets replaced by another and later on by another. Too bad this movie has got a whopping 3 different stories to tell, which only further weakens the power of this already rather slow movie.

Watch the brilliant and shocking "Fruitvale Station" (2013) instead of this slow (soft) surrogate...

The film starts out well enough, the acting is good and the story nuanced. The starting material and development are powerful, if predictable (nothing wrong with that). Perhaps to counter this, the option was to consecutively follow three different perspectives on the same events, three characters who hardly intersect, each with a clear "role" in terms of message. Although permanently unresolved issues are a key component of the film, in the end for me it felt disjointed due to this, three partial stories not necessarily making up a single great on. But I look forward for more from this director.

I was very excited to see this film and it certainly did not disappoint. A film of this kind is as relevant as they come and is up there in the ranks of other films with similar themes this year, such as Blindspotting and Black KkKlansman.

Manny, played by Hamilton's Anthony Ramos, records and looks on helplessly as his friend (who is African American) is shot and killed by the police. The killing has a ripple effect on the community and a plethora of citizens make their voices heard on the matter. Manny is just a family man who is trying his best to get by and provide for his family, but he ultimately puts his future in jeopardy to raise awareness of his friend's death.

John David Washington portrays Dennis Williams, a black police officer who has himself received questionable treatment from other police officers while off duty. He understands people being upset about the police killing, but he also feels that those people don't understand what it is like to be a cop, what it's like "out on the streets." The decision to have a black police officer as one of the lead characters was a great idea, as we get more than just one perspective.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. portrays Zyrick, a young and promising baseball player who decides to get involved in the fight by raising his voice along with so many others. Zyrick's father's desire is for him to reach baseball stardom, to leave the cruel streets behind him and achieve his wildest dreams, to not wind up shot on the streets like the man mentioned. This film is really about three characters and how their lives transpire after the shooting, and Zyrick was probably my favorite.

The ending to this film was the icing on the cake, brilliantly conveyed. There were several scenes in the film that emitted so much power, and the performances were fantastic. This film isn't one-sided and that's what I love about it; you get the story told from a police officer and from people on the other side. If you want to see a human story and a relevant theme told from different perspectives, go see this.

There are no stereotyped villains or good guys in this film, only different people reacting in different ways to the same event, which we never actually see. In that it resembles what we usually learn from what we regard as "news." This film is seriously under-rated and is one of the most realistic cop films I've ever seen.

A young man films the shooting of an unarmed black man by police officers in New York. This sparks a broader reaction in the community.

This is a very topical and important subject. However, the film lacks real power and emotional impact. The ending is unfulfilling.