Monsters and Men is fantastic with the “Who?” but terrible with the “What?” I won’t say this film had the worst set-up-to-pay-off ratio I’ve ever seen because I’m still waiting for the payoff. The movie reflects upon three denizens of a Brooklyn neighborhood racially charged in the wake of a police shooting … and does nothing with them.
Look, I’m not kidding about the “reflects” thing; that’s all this film does. It’s not a bad move, just an incomplete one, like there’s a Part II missing somewhere.
Act I is about Manny Ortega (Anthony Ramos), a young father in search of work. I’m not wild about the move where he leaves wife, daughter, mom, sibs, and any other Ortegans to go shoot dice on the street with his homies, but if he doesn’t, then he doesn’t capture the shooting on his phone. In a normal film, Manny uploads the video to YouTube immediately and the rest of the film examines the consequences of said action. In this film, Manny weighs the upload decision heavily, pitting his conscience, wife, daughter, job on one hand and justice on the other. He makes the decision and we never see him again. Period. I might feel stronger one way or another if we didn’t have to guess what was in the video … or what was in the movie for that matter; in Monsters and Men, it was impossible to tell what went on in the scene, let alone if it were racially motivated. Yes, that’s one way of letting the audience decide … a poor way; show us the factual scene and let us debate.
Act III is about tight-lipped pro baseball prospect teen Zyric (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a kid weighing his sporting future against his awakening sense of social justice. Not only is there little payoff to his personal battle, this Act is told out-of-order. Zyrick’s story is least poignant among the three and the editing doesn’t help matters.
Act II is about Officer Dennis Williams (John David Washington, once again playing an undercover detective). He had nothing to do with the shooting, but knows all about racial profiling, having been pulled over six (6) times already this year. Williams is also a family man treading a line, balancing the safety and welfare of his family on one hand and suspected injustice on the other. He gets put in the awkward position of having to defend the actions of a police officer he suspects acted out of racism, which might be great if there were a payoff of any kind to his suspicion.
A jumble of rich, textured, family portrayals and terrible editing, Monsters and Men chose to separate all three characters, telling each story in isolation, and abandoning each in turn as if there were no bigger picture forcing them together. If you didn’t get that there were significant editing issues from the fact that we stay with a guy for thirty minutes, then leave him and never return, you’d be able to guess from a charming scene in which Williams, his partner, and two other cops all congregate upon a basketball court to play some hoops with local boys. In the context of an urban profile, this is a delightful moment – a set of cops playing basketball with inner city kids. Everyone in blue is carrying a lethal weapon, but there’s no hate in the faces on the court. This is how life should be. In the context of the film, however, this scene is ludicrous. There is absolutely no way a group of inner city kids awakens to a police-related (and possibly race motivated) shooting of a neighborhood friend and says, “Well, gosh, I think we’ve been too hard on the guys in blue; let’s give ‘em a break.”
Monsters and Men is a reflection on a society where so many people do not, in fact, face personal cruxes and crises of faith every scene change. Here’s the thing – I don’t go to the movies to see the choices I don’t make; I go to the movies to see the choices I might make. Monsters and Men had precious few choices and felt terribly incomplete as a result.
So tell me about this movie you’ve got
In a Brooklyn neighborhood upsot
I see Monsters, then
I see portraits of men
What I don’t see, however, is plot
Rated R, 95 Minutes Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Writer: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Genre: Whole lotta backstory, little bit o’ movie
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Film school patrons
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Storyhounds
