Monos

Monos follows a group of child soldiers as they’re tasked with watching over a hostage (Julianne Nicholson’s Sara) atop a lonely mountaintop, with the spare narrative detailing the kids’ ongoing efforts at killing time and keeping Sara safe. Filmmaker Alejandro Landes, along with cinematographer Jasper Wolf, has infused Monos with a consistently eye-catching visual sensibility that remains a highlight from start to finish, as the movie otherwise suffers from a lack of elements designed to capture and sustain the viewers interest – with Landes’ spare approach to his and Alexis Dos Santos’ pared-down screenplay resulting in a thin narrative that contains little in the way of context or character development (which, in turn, makes it increasingly difficult to care about any of this). The decidedly arms-length atmosphere is compounded by an aggressively meandering midsection, as Landes places an almost ludicrous emphasis on the aforementioned kids’ entirely underwhelming and mostly pointless exploits – with the picture containing few sequences that manage to make any kind of positive impact. (There’s a tense, unexpectedly engrossing stretch revolving around Nicholson’s character, but it’s far too short-lived to make any real impact on the proceedings.) By the time the endless third act rolls around, Monos has undoubtedly confirmed its place as a super cinematic yet entirely tedious piece of work that’s hardly the stirring drama Landes has surely intended.

*1/2 out of ****