A Monster Calls (2016)
★★★★
This review may contain spoilers.
wow. what a beautiful powerful movie, I remember watching the first time and the impact it left on me before. but the impact that it has on me is greatly more important, this hit every emotional beat for me, I loved it.
I loved the amazing animation in the watercolor 2d style, I love how the story frames the animated figures without eyes, I like how they move in a kind of fluid motion, and I like that there seems to be a bit of a frame rate dip in the watercolor animation a keen to pre-spider-verse, I like how the tree creeps into all these stories in the background until it eventually takes up the whole story. I loved the animation and CGI on the monster, I think it looks really good, it's practical when it needs to be I.E. in the hospital when it pushes it towards his mom, but it's CGI when it can be, the way it interacts with the environment is phenomenal.
I loved the amazing makeup design on all the characters, hard to do makeup in movies like this where it's so grounded and so real that subtle makeup stands out, but I think the work that the makeup and hairstyling team did for this film worked great.
as well as a shout-out to the set dec team, Conor's room looks amazing from the first time we see it to the last time that we see it.
I loved the fantastic writing, so emotionally potent, there is a lot of setup and payoff that is clever if you notice it, like 12:07 being the obvious one but I liked the Chekov's gun-style thing that they did with King Kong falling it was great, I loved the dialogue and how it moves throughout the film, at some times there are some lines that can feel a bit weird but sometimes lines just sound weird I don't know. I like that In the most pivotal of scenes we are building to a point I point early towards the car scene where we see Conor get stuck on a point that his dad says and brings it back later in that conversation, I liked the writing on the mini-stories within this larger story they were well done, which hints at liking the structure of the film I like when each story is told and how it is told, all in all, the writing in this film is what carries it I feel the most, the animation carries it visually but the writing carries it emotionally.
I loved the acting from Liam Neeson who is doing such a great job with the role that he has chosen to play, the thing that keeps Conor grounded in the moments when he is so close to losing it, to Felicity Jones who is doing such a great job in the role that she is in, selling someone who is acting tuff, and has a sense of humor reacting to these pretty tragic things that are happening to her character, Sigourney Weaver is great in this film as well, the way that she plays this character who is caring in her subtle way is amazing, to the stand out of the film Lewis MacDougall who nails this performance, he is the thing carrying the film and so his performance has to be good and it is, there are a couple of scenes where it is a little weird but when he goes all out, he goes all out giving an oscar worthy performance.
I liked the sound design, the focus on the breath from each character, and the sound design and vocal enhancements on Liam Neeson's voice were great, I like that the music knew when to go silent, but more importantly, that scene where all sound, all music cut out as he lets go of the hand was so brilliant, it felt like the film was allowing for Conor to keep that scream private which he needed we learn so much about his character but there are some things that he needs just for himself.
I do wish the cinematography was just a tad more dynamic, one thing the film knows how to do is to hold onto a shot when It needs to which literally can't be understated that was great, but I do wish we had more shots that felt more dynamic, that is a wish but I realize doing something completely dynamic in a film like this would most likely take away from the performances and from the writing which seem to be the primary focus, so that is just me wanting something but fine with what we got.
there are some things that I wish were different but they are minor, and don't matter all that much to the plot or writing or anything and more so personal preference so why mention that here, this is a great film that if you haven't seen yet check out, it probably won't be a few peoples thing which is fine but this hit every beat for me and more. I cried thank you.
notes below
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- Liam Neeson was such a great choice for this movie, the roughness of his voice.
- I like that red light that was casting onto him.
- I love this ink dot intro.
- like that, most of these shots are handheld shaky cam, in Conor's perspective.
- I like the set design of Conor's home.
- love how the drawing faded into the window.
- I loved how those eyes and mouths made a monster, foreshadowing what was to come.
- omg the animation on the monster looks great.
- I love how long we held on him in her bed.
- I also love how the set decoration is doing most of the work explaining to us in subtle detail what might be going on before things start to kick off.
- Sigourney Weaver is doing great with the still and coldness she has towards Conor but as soon as Lizzie falls the immediate care that she has.
- I liked that shot of the camera passing through the stairs.
- I know that these flash-forwards are building to something, but I wish they focused more on the cemetery falling apart as opposed to Conor and the acting he is doing. I know it's important to see them, but personal preference?
- I like the sound design of The Monster.
- I love these watercolor animations!! omg how fluid they are, how the colors pop.
- I love how the trees creep into every frame in these watercolor scenes.
- the way the red liquid fell onto the ground was so beautiful.
- I like how heavy The Monster's breath is -- to be honest there has been a focus on the breaths in the film, we linger on characters to allow them to breathe and to take in the environment.
- I like that he doesn't have to say who he needs saving from, that Conor knows, that we know here, just a really good way to showcase that the movie doesn't treat us like we are dumb.
- love this shot of him shrouded by the glass door.
- I love the costume design, especially on Lizzie.
- I like the soundtrack, it's not in the way, it's enhancing the film not taking it away.
- significant how the first thing Connor's dad asks him is if he is okay, he looks tired.
- we move from white eyes to red eyes.
- love how they start walking into his animated world.
- I love the stark silence here -- again focus on breathing.
- I love how this door was set up earlier and is being brought back now.
- interesting that he is holding the drawing of the prince.
- I feel like this scene 1hr 3mins should have been the first time that we saw his face during that flash-forward, that matching cut would have been fantastic and to hear those emotions up until this point where you see them wow.
- the makeup team did such a great job in this film.
- Felicity Jones is doing some great acting.
- I like how we had kind of Chekov's fall here, King Kong, there was one other I remember, then this one the payoff. -- to be honest, the movie kind of has a lot of setup and payoff that is well done.
- also this third act is powerful.
- in the commotion, I forgot to mention how amazing the sound cutting out was.
- the silence in this last scene as he is going through her drawings is so good.
