Cinema can find so many ways in. Alejandro Landes’ astonishing “Monos,” recently named Colombia’s official Oscar submission, seeps in through the skin like a sweet, druggy sickness — the kind that heightens and sharpens your dreams even as it scrambles them, making the brights brighter and the darks darker, while keeping you feverishly uncertain about whether the next cut will bring rapture or nightmare. , “Monos” presents an ugly reality in terms so profoundly paradoxical it becomes surreality: an experience at once jagged and lyrical, brutal and beautiful, angry and abstract, scattered and wholly singular.
These Lost Boys, some of them girls, whose raggedy clothes are accessorized with battered machine guns, slung across bony shoulders or dangling carelessly off thin arms, go by noms de guerre like Rambo (Sofia Buenaventura), Boom-boom (Sneider Castro), Lady (Karen Quintero), Dog (Paul Kubides), Wolf (Julian Giraldo) and Bigfoot (Moises Arias). On a misty mountaintop, these...
These Lost Boys, some of them girls, whose raggedy clothes are accessorized with battered machine guns, slung across bony shoulders or dangling carelessly off thin arms, go by noms de guerre like Rambo (Sofia Buenaventura), Boom-boom (Sneider Castro), Lady (Karen Quintero), Dog (Paul Kubides), Wolf (Julian Giraldo) and Bigfoot (Moises Arias). On a misty mountaintop, these...
- 9/28/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Neon has unveiled the full-length, official Us trailer for the acclaimed Colombian thriller titled Monos, which played at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals earlier this year to outstanding reviews (here's mine). Monos is made by filmmaker Alejandro Landes; he was born in Brazil to Colombian & Ecuadorian parents, he infuses much of the social-political elements of those areas into the film. Monos is one of those beautifully strange, abstract films where this isn't any real explanation given, but you're compelled to follow along anyway. On a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted cow. The film stars Moisés Arias, Julianne Nicholson, Sofía Buenaventura, Karen Quintero, Laura Castrillón, Deiby Rueda, Julián Giraldo, Paul Cubides, and Sneider Castro. This is one of the most talked about films of the year, and it deserves all this acclaim and attention. You definitely do not want to miss this one.
- 7/16/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Get a first look at a trailer for the acclaimed Colombian thriller Monos, which played at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals to excellent reviews from critics all over. Monos is made by filmmaker Alejandro Landes, born in Brazil to Colombian & Ecuadorian parents, he infuses much of the social-political elements of those areas into the film. Monos is one of those beautifully strange, abstract films where this isn't any real explanation given, but you're compelled to follow along anyway. On a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted cow. Starring Moisés Arias, Julianne Nicholson, Sofía Buenaventura, Karen Quintero, Laura Castrillón, Deiby Rueda, Julián Giraldo, Paul Cubides, and Sneider Castro. It's one of the best I've seen out of the festivals this year, one of my favorites as well. Here's the first festival promo trailer for Alejandro Landes' Monos, direct from Film Society's YouTube: Patagrande,...
- 3/18/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“Monos” takes place in the dense jungles and foggy mountaintops of northern Colombia, but it may as well be another planet. Director Alejandro Landes’ thrilling survivalist saga tracks a dysfunctional group of young militants as they traipse through perilous terrain, engaging in savage behavior while toying with their mortified American hostage (Julianne Nicholson), but they never reveal their motivations. Equal parts “Lord of the Flies” and “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” Landes’ third feature distills guerrilla warfare into sheer anarchy.
By stripping away the sociopolitical context, “Monos” provides a window into power-hungry mayhem on the fringes of society that could happen anytime, anywhere — but depicts its hectic showdowns with a you-are-there intensity that could only take place in the present. Aided by “Under the Skin” composer Micah Levi’s thunderous score, Landes delivers a suspenseful encapsulation of alienated youth enmeshed in pointless battles that can only lead to further destruction.
By stripping away the sociopolitical context, “Monos” provides a window into power-hungry mayhem on the fringes of society that could happen anytime, anywhere — but depicts its hectic showdowns with a you-are-there intensity that could only take place in the present. Aided by “Under the Skin” composer Micah Levi’s thunderous score, Landes delivers a suspenseful encapsulation of alienated youth enmeshed in pointless battles that can only lead to further destruction.
- 1/27/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The hands of fate have bestowed a raw deal on the young protagonists of co-writer and director Alejandro Landes' bleak, rather ghastly Monos. Sporting names like Rambo (Sofia Buenaventura), Lobo (Julian Giraldo), Bum Bum (Sneider Castro) and Patagrande (Hannah Montana alum Moises Arias, hard-left-turning into gun-toting psychopathy), these youths and barely-teens are beholden to a mysterious rebel force known only as The Organization, which is conducting terrorist strikes against some ill-defined powers-that-be in South America.
We first see these babyfaced subversives under the harsh tutelage of Mensajero (actual ex-guerrilla Wilson Salazar), a diminutive taskmaster instructing them in gunplay atop a stunningly ...
We first see these babyfaced subversives under the harsh tutelage of Mensajero (actual ex-guerrilla Wilson Salazar), a diminutive taskmaster instructing them in gunplay atop a stunningly ...
- 1/27/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The hands of fate have bestowed a raw deal on the young protagonists of co-writer and director Alejandro Landes' bleak, rather ghastly Monos. Sporting names like Rambo (Sofia Buenaventura), Lobo (Julian Giraldo), Bum Bum (Sneider Castro) and Patagrande (Hannah Montana alum Moises Arias, hard-left-turning into gun-toting psychopathy), these youths and barely-teens are beholden to a mysterious rebel force known only as The Organization, which is conducting terrorist strikes against some ill-defined powers-that-be in South America.
We first see these babyfaced subversives under the harsh tutelage of Mensajero (actual ex-guerrilla Wilson Salazar), a diminutive taskmaster instructing them in gunplay atop a stunningly ...
We first see these babyfaced subversives under the harsh tutelage of Mensajero (actual ex-guerrilla Wilson Salazar), a diminutive taskmaster instructing them in gunplay atop a stunningly ...
- 1/27/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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