X
- 2016
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 48 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 48 m
Summary 12-year-old Conor (Lewis MacDougall), dealing with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a Monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and tru...
Directed By: J.A. Bayona
Written By: Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd
- 2016
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 48 m
- 2016
- PG-13
- Focus Features
- 1 h 48 m
A Monster Calls
76
7.7
Where to Watch
Summary 12-year-old Conor (Lewis MacDougall), dealing with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) illness, a less-than-sympathetic grandmother (Sigourney Weaver), and bullying classmates, finds a most unlikely ally when a Monster appears at his bedroom window. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster guides Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and tru...
Directed By: J.A. Bayona
Written By: Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
76
83% Positive
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
15% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
76
83% Positive
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
15% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
3% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
J.A. Bayona's exquisite A Monster Calls blends pathos and sophistication, fairy tales and harsh realities into a small masterpiece.
The fact that not every terrible thing can be remedied or appropriately punished is a tough lesson even for adults to learn, but A Monster Calls helps find the sense in it.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 258 User Ratings
7.7
81% Positive
208 Ratings
208 Ratings
13% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
6% Negative
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 258 User Ratings
7.7
81% Positive
208 Ratings
208 Ratings
13% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
6% Negative
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
Mukemmeldi resmen bayildim. Puanim 10/10
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This film thankfully isn’t a dramatic piece gunning for awards glory, but rather a heartwarming adventure through the emotional landscape of a child unsure how to live. It is very sentimental, but that’s kind of the point.
A Monster Calls is an engrossing tragic fantasy, sustained by genuine sentiment.
Based on the book by Patrick Ness, the film belongs alongside “Pan’s Labyrinth” in the realm of darkly creative kid-centric films that are, at their core, not really kids’ fare at all.
Ornamented heavily with creative visual pleasures, the film is bogged down, not just by weighty thematic issues — death, divorce, bullying, unfairness — but by professions of its own grandeur.
A Monster Calls is both governed and straitjacketed by director J.A. Bayona’s competent impersonality.
The intro and credits immediately establishes J.A Bayona as a master of his craft, beautiful cgi, animation and editing. The production values are super high, like Spielberg caliber. Just looking at the gorgeous photography and animation is worthwhile. The animation has a wonderful watercolor look, reminds me of Vanillaware (Odin Sphere) games. I was a little confused by a kid who didn't want to be ignored by bullies, usually introverted people are adverse to attention, especially abuse.
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Not only all the stories are messy and dark but they are awfully clean as well, this will tuck you right into sleep.
A Monster Calls
Bayona is so focused, so invested in his characters that he might not even consider where they reside in. And frankly, he shouldn't, definitely not if this self-centered vision of his pitches a good assumption land for us to flex our muscles. The writer and director J.A. Bayona is famous for creating his views on the horror genre. Yet, I never felt him scare me. Yes, he does keep the camera up close to the events occuring, no matter how cringe worthy. And on that note what I think he does best is blend the practicality of a situation along with his fictional innuendos, that then pushes to a train of scary thoughts.
For neither in this film, nor in Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, could he water me down with his brilliant camera work. But in Lo Imposible, his silent pitches on the screen are impeccable. Hence, all the cliched emotional impact that we are spinning in, actually works more than the monstrous therapy sessions; which by the way is more engaging and fun to go through. And this is where you know Bayona's tricks are working. Just watch Sigourey Weaver take in all the damage done by Lewis MacDougall.
Your heart starts skipping as you are unaware of where all this has been or is leading towards. And after that act, the film grows clear. Similar to all the tales narrated and all different tracks going parallel-y this one remains the crux of the theme, and whispers everything in that bubble. More to it, the close up shot works also on amplifying the performance and their ticks to get us completely immersed in this fantasy world. A Monster Calls and you have to answer, that part has always been the subtextual gist of all the horrors, in here it is a loud- like in bold and in capitals- metaphor.
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Can you suffer cliches? If you can, then read on.
The movie has two worlds that interconnect.
First is reality. Connor O'Maley is a pale pipsqueak single son of twelve. He has a sickly single-parent mother. Did you count the stereotypes? There are some more. He has a dad, living in America who is, of course, mostly unreliable. He has also a nasty grandmom, who seems more concerned with keeping her house in order than supporting her only grandson(as far as we can tell.) And Connor has no friends. And Connor is also the target of a bully. What is the cliché count by now?
Second is fantasy. Connor has strange dreams. He calls forth a monster(so it **** comes to tell him three stories during three nights and then Connor must tell him the fourth. Of course there are connections between the first and the second world, but unlike the cliché infested real world, the fantasy is far from straight forward and trite. In fact the stories follow unpredictable patterns and the lines are not that easy to follow. The three stories are told through animations and those work well. Eventually it gets all wrapped up at the end which isn't cliché but more realistic than you might expect.
All-in-all a movie with a nice well told story supported by good acting but hamstrung by clichés, overdone dramatic music, boring cinematography(overuse of slow cam shots and close-ups) and obvious tweaked scenes(watch the weather turn sour all of a sudden near the end so the impact of the drama is exacerbated by the rain). Some will see past it, others will flee the theater. A mixed bag therefore.
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I have an umbelievably negetive bias against this movie. The same kind I have for bridge to terabithia. For starters I went in blind into this film with only a trailer. To get the positives out of the way, good image, good acting, good effects. So, 3 for the objective things. Back to the reason I dislike such films. I was expecting to see a more dramatic monster movie. Unfortunately its only the dramatic part thats true. The monster is some sort of an alegory or imaginary friend. To the film's credit it was not bait and switch, like, terabithia was. I had hoped that this movie was going to be a monster movie even partially. It was not. My feeling towards it would be no different if I knew exactly what the film was about.
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Production Company
Participant,
River Road Entertainment,
A Monster Calls,
Apaches Entertainment,
Películas la Trini,
Summit Entertainment
Release Date Dec 23, 2016
Duration 1 h 48 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline Stories are wild creatures.
Awards
Goya Awards
• 9 Wins & 12 Nominations
Gaudí Awards
• 8 Wins & 11 Nominations
The Platino Awards for Iberoamerican Cinema
• 4 Wins & 7 Nominations
