Movie Review - Monster (2021)

Premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, this production sat on the shelf for over three years. It was collecting dust even before the coronavirus pandemic. It's the adaptation of Walter Dean Myers' 1999 novel. Myers mainly does children's books. This one though focuses on an African-American teenager accused of murder. Its being shelved has its positives and negatives. The positives include the actors in it were allowed to become more well-known or even award-winning stars, so the younger cast is more recognizable than they would have been three years ago. The negatives though are in that three-year gap, those same actors have done other projects, some that have tackled the exact same themes or issues and have done so in better fashion than this film does.

Director Anthony Mandler has mainly been making music videos for the past 20 years. He's done a lot of R&B and Rap videos, including videos for Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Drake, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and the Jonas Brothers. This film is essentially his feature debut. It's not as flashy, creative or inventive as his music videos. At one point, I thought Mandler might lean into Terrence Malick as an inspiration, particularly with the use of hushed voice-over narration, but it's likely just the writers lifting from the novel. It seems as Mandler simply wanted to do something different from the music video realm, something that was more straightforward and muted.

Kelvin Harrison Jr (The High Note and It Comes At Night) stars as Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old, African-American living in Harlem, New York. He's attending a really good high school and he hopes to become a filmmaker. He's always shooting videos on his cell phone of things that he sees in the neighborhood. He comes from parents who seem well off or have really good-paying jobs. However, he's constantly running across young Black kids who aren't so well off.

In fact, his interactions with two kids who are part of a drug gang are what get him into trouble. He's implicated in the robbery and death of the owner of a bodega. The opening of the film is black-and-white, surveillance video of that robbery and death. Immediately, we see Steve being booked at the police station and put into jail. The rest of the film consists of watching Steve through his trial, as well as the flashbacks of his life leading up to the day of the crime.

Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty and The King's Speech) co-stars as Maureen O'Brien, the lawyer representing Steve. She's a calm and measured presence, guiding him through this legal process. She's helping to push back against the prosecution's assertion that Steven is a "monster." She's fully aware of the prejudice and sheer racism in the criminal justice system. However, the film isn't really all that compelling as a legal drama.

It's not like 12 Angry Men (1957) or To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). It's not even Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) in which Harrison was featured. Despite being name-checked, this film doesn't really underline the inherent or even obvious racism in the criminal justice system. Most legal dramas have some twists or turns. They have punching moments in the courtroom. Yet, this film doesn't really have anything like that. Again, it's all pretty straightforward and rather dull. While the courtroom stuff feels rushed in some moments, it's slow in others.

John David Washington (Tenet and BlacKkKlansman) plays Richard Evans aka Bobo. He's a gang member who was involved in the robbery and murder, but he gets on the witness stand during the trial and testifies against Steven. It's ironic because Washington was in another film with Harrison that also premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival with a similar title. It was called Monsters and Men (2018). That film, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, was able to get a theatrical release that same year.

Green's film deals with a lot of similar themes and issues as this one, even though it's more about the Black Lives Matter movement. Both films have Harrison and Washington's characters be at odds. Both films ultimately boil down to Harrison's character having to wrestle with his identity, a struggle that could or could not jeopardize his future. It's a struggle that also comes down to whether he as a young Black man will engage with his community or try to rise out of it. However, Green's film explores those themes and issues better.

Jharrel Jerome (Concrete Cowboy and Moonlight) plays Osvaldo Cruz, a young Dominican who lives in the same neighborhood as Steven but the two don't really know each other. Steven has only seen him in passing at the basketball court. Osvaldo does also have to testify at Steven's trial. Osvaldo reminded me of another role that Jerome did recently. Jerome's role reminded me of his Emmy-winning turn in When They See Us (2019). That series, directed by Ava DuVernay, also explores the same themes and issues as this one. Yet again, DuVernay's series also did it better than this one.

What also didn't help is that this film references Rashomon (1950), which is a Japanese film about a horrible crime that's told from different perspectives or different points of view. Aside from name-checking that 1950 classic, Mandler's film here does nothing cinematic-wise or structure-wise that would be worth the comparison. What also didn't help is the fact that Harrison himself was in two films after this one: Luce (2019) and Waves (2019). Both those films were made after this one but were released before it. Both those films also have similar themes and issues. There's also comparable plots where Harrison's characters in both those other films also get accused of crimes and he struggles with his identity as a Black man. In terms of narrative, I didn't think those films were better but as directed pieces of cinema, they were more compelling than this one.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 39 mins.

Available on Netflix.