[Language: Spanish (Colombian)]

There were times when I needed to remind myself to breathe as Monos reached its climax. Long gone was a film about looking after a cow. We had descended into absolute chaos. This was what I wanted Joker to be like. The film took you out of the cinema onto a very surreal journey from which there may well be no return as Monos sticks its claws in your brain.

“The Monos” are a group of child guerrillas who work for “The Organisation”. They sit on a mountain guarding an American prisoner of war. You don’t know when or where this is. Neither do you know who is good and who is evil. But that just adds to the mystery and starts every character on a blank canvas. As the film goes on, the isolation up in the mountains and in the middle of the jungle starts to have an effect on this group as they transition from hallucinogenic freedom to Lord of the Flies. The whole plot is difficult to put forward in words. Monos is more of an experience than a story. This is in a similar way to 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it’s faster moving.

The Kubrick-esque cinematography experience which really projects Monos into the realms. Atmospherically we get a wonderful colour pallet. In the first half of the film, we are in this really misty pastel coloured setting which offers a calm seperate from a chaotic world below. Landscape shots interjected with close ups keep you on your feet. The professional cameras switch to unsteady camcorders to get different points of view and really immerse you. We then go into this crazy zone where drugs are taken (It’s not as crazy as Jupiter and the beyond), which gets rather artistic. The scenes in darkness are cut across with POV night vision. Then suddenly, after this madness we are bought into the jungle with a bump. More isolation is seen with towering crane shots showing the Monos well hidden away within acres of towering trees. The bright greens and browns with the sun hitting the scenes adds an intensity which we weren’t expecting earlier on as the movie ramps up its tension. This is when you get some of the most vivid imagery with burning vehicles and child soldiers fully becoming warriors. Underwater shots are also crazy offering more frightening moments. As we see all of these scenes we lose a sense of time. I wasn’t sure if I’d watched a 90 minute film or a 144 minute film and had to ask somebody the time when I left the cinema. For such a young director, Alejandro Landes really pulled out all of the stops.

If the visuals and the plot aren’t enough then my word, the music is phenomenal. Sounding more like random effects, the score is a relaxing bird whistle, similar to tribal communications with a dissonant powerful synthetic crescendo straight afterwards. The whole thing is so simple, yet put in so well at the right times. While the script is fantastic, it’s really in the moments of silence where the music and sounds of the world are playing where we really become immersed.

With such visuals and music, a film needs to be daring and my goodness this picture is uncompromising. This is what I was looking for when I was watching joker. Its as merciless as cult classic Battle Royale. Anybody could live or die a shocking death. Nothing was off the table as these kids were happy to cross any line to survive their war with themselves and the world. The whole film is a deep look into troubled people and really is grim. Snowflakes, go and watch Peanut Butter Falcon instead (Actually, everyone go and watch that as well).

The characters are all fantastic. While some aren’t explored too much, we learn a heirachy early on. Rambo is mourning the loss of Wolf and is rather sensitive. Smurf is only young. Boom Boom has the weight of the world on his shoulders while Bigfoot is a nutter. The relationships within this group are dynamic and really play a pivotal part. We start from a place where every character is neither good or bad before shifting to a place where we start to think someone is good, but not really. Nobody is consistently good in this film and thats part of the dark human spirit Monos puts under the microscope. Every actor is on top form as well. You can’t tell who is a first time actor and special praise goes to Julianne Nicholson (Doctora) and Moises Arias (Bigfoot), the second of whom really brought across the tension of the film.

Summary

Possibly the best cinematic experience of the year, Monos has to be seen to be believed. With stunning imagery and music and an uncomprimising story to match, this film will leave you breathless. [Grade: A+]

This film will sadly have a limited release, so may require some searching for. But it’s well worth it and I might even go and see it again!