Monos

Critics Consensus

As visually splendid as it is thought-provoking, Monos takes an unsettling look at human nature whose grim insights leave a lingering impact.

85%

Audience Score

Verified Ratings: 33

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Monos Videos

1:34

Monos: Trailer 1

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Monos Photos

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Movie Info

MONOS, Alejandro Landes' third feature, is a survivalist saga set on a remote mountain in Latin America. The film tracks a young group of soldiers and rebels -- bearing names like Rambo, Smurf, Bigfoot, Wolf and Boom-Boom -- who keep watch over an American hostage, Doctora (Julianne Nicholson). The teenage commandos perform military training exercises by day and indulge in youthful hedonism by night, an unconventional family bound together under a shadowy force know only as The Organization. After an ambush drives the squadron into the jungle, both the mission and the intricate bonds between the group begin to disintegrate. Order descends into chaos and within MONOS the strong begin to prey on the weak in this vivid, cautionary fever-dream.

Rating:

R (for violence, language, some sexual content and drug use)
Genre:

Drama
Directed By:

Alejandro Landes
Written By:

Alexis Dos Santos, Alejandro Landes
In Theaters:

Sep 13, 2019 limited
Runtime:

102 minutes
Studio:

NEON

Cast

Julianne Nicholson
as Doctora Sara Watson

Moises Arias
as Patagrande

Sofia Buenaventura
as Rambo

Julian Giraldo
as Lobo - Wolf

Karen Quintero
as Leidi - Lady

News & Interviews for Monos

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Critic Reviews for Monos

All Critics (134) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (124) | Rotten (10)

The performances from the young cast are vivid and utterly credible, yet the conspicuously metaphorical nature of the context eventually becomes wearisome.

October 28, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Kevin Maher
Times (UK)
Top Critic
Monos is gorgeous, but it is also lucid as hell. And it all happens at lightning speed.

October 28, 2019 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

David Sexton
London Evening Standard
Top Critic
Muscular filmmaking. Physically shaken, in a good way.

October 22, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Josh Slater-Williams
Little White Lies
Top Critic
[A] gorgeously shot, haunting look at human nature at its fraying edges.

October 4, 2019 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Adam Graham
Detroit News
Top Critic
An experience at once jagged and lyrical, brutal and beautiful, angry and abstract, scattered and wholly singular.

September 28, 2019 | Full Review…

Jessica Kiang
Variety
Top Critic
It's an intoxicating descent into anarchy that alarmingly suggests the bonds of civility are all too easy to shuck off.

September 26, 2019 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic
Without forgetting his influences, [director] Alejandro Landes is able to find his own voice and, what is even more exceptional, is able to give resonance to those of each of his story's protagonists. [Full review in Spanish]

February 24, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Juan Montón
El antepenúltimo mohicano
Monos turns that conflict into an overwhelming essay about violence and detachment. [Full Review in Spanish]

February 21, 2020 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Desirée De Fez
Fotogramas
To a so direct to the jugular job, with so many cinematographic and literary references, a little more background risk would have been good. [Full Review in Spanish]

February 21, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Kiko Vega
Espinof
Horrifying and beautiful. [Full review in Spanish]

February 18, 2020 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

Andrea G. Bermejo
Cinemanía (Spain)
Alejandro Landes' guerrilla rites of passage offer a bleakly surreal child-soldier sensorium.

February 18, 2020 | Full Review…

Anton Bitel
VODzilla.co
It's intriguing enough to worth a look, but in the end, not much of it sticks with us.

February 11, 2020 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Filipe Freitas
Always Good Movies

View All Critic Reviews (134)

Audience Reviews for Monos

Jan 25, 2020

This year's equivalent to EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT is an auditory and visual hallucination of child soldiers somewhere in the Colombian jungle. The elliptical method of storytelling is strong with this one, and we aren't really given much context for why there are child soldiers out in the jungle holding an American doctor as prisoner, but the overt references to "Lord of the Flies" and "Heart of Darkness" make it fairly apparent there's some sort of war going on. Ascertaining who with or why purposfully frustrates the viewer, so we are left to focus on the characters themselves and their actions. There's a whole lot of intended metaphorical substance behind this sensory experience to do with the self-socialization and with Latin American history in general, but I'll let you sift through that yourself since I'm still unpacking it as well. Perhaps even more enticing than the gorgeous visuals, chaotic beauty of the mountainous jungle, and skin crawling body fascination from all the mud and fire is the method of casting development they started months before shooting. Evidently they took about 20-30 Colombian kids to location and set up camp. They received acting lessons and military training each day until they were whittled down "Survivor"-style to the core cast of eight. Their methodized acting translates impeccably well to the screen as, aside from the artifice of presentation, it's somewhere between Come and See and a "Kony 2012" documentary. Add on Mica Levi's (UNDER THE SKIN, JACKIE, MARJORIE PRIME) minimalist score to the fracas and it is nothing short of a psychedelic experience. Also, it's a compelling commentary on the desperate scenarios that fuel the global migrant crisis, if you're into that sort of thing.

Steve L Super Reviewer