A Monster Calls (2016)

Too much of everything

Better Late Then Never

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

'A Monster Calls (2017)' is the kind of 'fantasy as allegory' that's so often made all the less ambiguous, one way or the other, precisely because of its format. Film isn't quite able to achieve the kind of unspoken uncertainty that novels often inherently carry, considering the all-encompassing perspective of written fist-person narratives, but not every story is meant to work both literally and figuratively - though many often do and I can't speak to the intentions of the source-material (which I haven't read). My point is that some material perhaps has more impact if it makes itself as definitive as possible. Such is the case with this feature, which never really has any pretences about its more outlandish elements and always frames them as the coping mechanisms of a child - though the occasionally more tangible moment does break this illusion somewhat. While the stranger elements perhaps don't work as well as they would have in a piece totally told from the perspective of our unreliable narrator of a protagonist, the film comes together to tell a tale as old as time in a distinct way that actually allows it to be widely accessible and incredibly emotionally resonant, to boot. 7/10

What a beautiful, haunting and profound film. It's about a boy whose mother is dying (his mother is separated from his father, who now lives abroad). The boy is visited at night by a monster in the form a of a large tree growing within sight of his house, who on each visit tells him one of three stories; he says on the final visit the boy must tell him a story which must be true. It's as simple as that - yet utterly beautiful and moving. Each of the stories is told as wonderfully stylised piece of animation (the rest of the film is live action); the rest of the action narrates the relationships between the boy, his mother, his father and grandmother, as well as the boy's problems at school. It made me think of so much - the effect of loss and trauma on a young life, and how much my precious foster children have lost in so little time, and the creative steps they have to take to cope the loss. It made me think of my own losses, and how I live with them, deal with them and create a life that tries to encompass them and somehow grow through them. And it made me think of my own failings as a son and a father. It's one of the most moving films I've seen in years, directed with great power and economy, performed with lovely understatement that is allowed to cut loose at crucial moments. Highly recommended.

Incredibly sad movie, but an amazing portrail of how a child actually feels when faced with death.

This film is simply a beautiful masterpiece. It makes you care for the characters, feel sorry for characters. It has style and looks good. Music on point, acting on point, story on point! I've never cried to a movie, I don't get tears in my eyes. This might have gotten a little tear in the corner of my eye. This movie is just, fantastic. Watch it.