Monolith – Review
I have a story to tell you…
Man, I do love me a good Australian film. Horror and science fiction from down under just have a different flavor to them.
Monolith, though, feels a bit more universal in its appeal, to me, and I think a lot of folks are going to agree with me.
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below, then use the links at the bottom of the post to listen or watch as he discusses the movie more with special guest Craig Price from Matinee Heroes. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
94 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Lucy Campbell
Directed by Matt Vesely
Synopsis:
While trying to salvage her career, a disgraced journalist begins investigating a strange conspiracy theory. But as the trail leads uncomfortably close to home, she is left to grapple with the lies at the heart of her own story.
Lily Sullivan is our protagonist, the unnamed journalist who went to war with a powerful person and lost, ostensibly due to not verifying a source, despite her insistence the story was true.
Ironically caught in a barrage of bad press, she leaves the city for her well-to-do family’s house in the country, there to attempt a journalist comeback with a podcast investigating strange phenomena: “Beyond the Believable.”
Sifting through endless conspiracy theories and hard-core wackos, she is sent an anonymous email containing only a picture, a name, and a phone number, along with the words “the brick.”
Contacting the woman named in the email, she manages to pry a disturbing story out of her about a “black brick” which simply appeared and gave her vague feelings of a strange power.
This isn’t really the kind of story she is looking for, but after learning the brick had been taken by the woman’s employer and sold to an art dealer, she decides to track him down.
This is when the story gets really strange, as she learns there isn’t ONE brick, but many, all of which are “received” by their owners, but who cannot recall HOW they received them., and all of whom report feeling the same feelings of some sort of power and meaning behind the bricks.
And this is when stress, isolation, and a good mystery begin to take their toll on our protagonist. Slipping deeper and deeper into the mystery of the origin and meaning of the bricks, her podcast begins to take off, bringing her even more stories of the bricks.
The bricks, and the idea of the bricks, become the Monolith, looming in her mind and soul, driving her on, deeper into the mystery.
After that… you’ll just have to watch, because that’s the joy here.
I like Monolith for similar reasons as to why I liked The Vast of Night and Pontypool. The human condition feeds the need to understand the unknown, and has swallowed many a psyche across human history.
Ever been sucked down a Wikipedia™ rabbit-hole?
In the end, the secret she so desperately needs to discover is one that we all know about: secrets can be cancerous, as our inability to face some things is a slow death.
And the way the filmmakers design and implement that is a beautiful thing. The ending of this one can go either way, both of which are disturbing in their own right.
But this story is well worth watching and paying attention to. Monolith is a slow-burn thriller, flavored with supernatural and science fiction accents?
Fantastic. Check this one out.
Monolith hits select theaters and Digital outlets on February 16 and stars Lily Sullivan, Ling Cooper Tang, Terence Crawford, Matt Cook, Kate Box, Brigid Sengeni, and Ansuya Nathan.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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