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...

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.

Reasonably balanced presentation of this highly charged subject that we, unfortunately, see all too frequently in today's headlines. A strong nuanced performance here by John David Washington as a conflicted NYPD police officer. Also, a solid big screen debut of writer and director Reinaldo Marcus Green. However I didn't like the ambiguous ending here.

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.

"Monsters and Men" (2018 release; 05 min.) brings the story of three black men. As the movie opens, a black guy (we later learn his name is Dennis) in his car is pulled over for no apparent reason. After the cops check his driver's license, they tell him "sorry to bother you, you are good to go", but what the cops don't know is that Dennis is a copy himself (off duty at that time). We then get to know Manny, who is filling out a job application to become a building security guard. After coming back home in Brooklyn, he notices a commotion, and comes close, filming the whole thing. A black guy in a store is surrounded by 6 or 7 cops. At some point a shot is fired and the black guy is killed. Later on, Manny struggles whether to release the footage. At this point we're 10 min. into the movie. In the third story line much later in the movie, we get to know Zyrich, a high school baseball phenom. To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the feature-length debut from writer/director Reinaldo Marcus Green. Here he tackles an all too familiar topic these days: police brutality, in particular white cop against unarmed black man. It is very easy to fall in the trap of stereotypes (all cops are bad!!!), which this film thankfully avoids (unlike another recent movie--more on that later) hence credit must go to Green for providing a more nuanced perspective. In that sense, Dennis (the black cop) plays the most important role in the movie, and the casting of John David Washington is a stroke of genius, as he is outstanding, just as he was in "BlackkKlansman" earlier this year. Washington brings Dennis as an earnest guy who tries his best in a difficult environment. The story line of Manny is also top notch. So far, so good. Alas, the last third of the movie, centering around HS baseball phenom Zyrich falters badly. I see what Green is trying to do but it simple does not feel authentic or credible. But overall I still quite liked the film. This is in stark contrast to that other recent "white cop brutality against unarmed black man" themed movie, "The Hate U Give", in which there literally isn't a single decent white person (let alone a cop) in the movie and all African-Americans are 'good' (but for the token black drug king). By all means stay far away from "The Hate U Give".

"Monsters and Men" premiered at this year's Sundance film festival to good acclaim. It recently opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The early evening screening where I saw this at turned out to be a private screening as in: I was literally the only person in the theater. Hopefully this movie will garner a wider audience when it becomes available on more platforms. If you are interested in important social issues that are brought in a nuanced manner, I'd readily suggest you check out "Monsters and Men", be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.