Monos (2019)

Beautiful landscape. Strange storyline. Great soundtrack. Not everyone's cup of tea.

Bizarre story about a jungle commando in South America. Most of the actors are kids. Many resemblances with Apocalypse now.

Fmovies: A film with no beginning, no middle, no end. Quite an achievement.

Amazing colombian scenery, combined with a bizarre story along with great actors. This movie is a thrill ride and it kind of exhausts you in a good way. Definitely recommended.

Monos fmovies. We follow a group of teenagers who are being trained as guerrilla soldiers, but who in this incredibly harsh environment respond to various crises each in their various ways - echoing the lord of the flies immensely with the breakdown of the group (and a very unsubtle visual homage at one point). Not knowing anything about the politics surrounding the war they are involved in, it is quite disorientating and we the viewers experience only the immediate surroundings, threats and fears of the characters, who are all portrayed very well by these young actors. The cinematography is beautiful, with rich colours and some very memorable compositions. As slight downsides, I found the plot a bit frantic - so much happens to these characters, and the chaos of the film is deliberate, but there could be more scenes of dialogue in the midst of the action to get us even more involved with the characters. The choice to leave the region and conflict unspoken is interesting - apparently the film was inspired by the guerrilla war in Columbia, but it's never stated. For many of us from other countries the film would have been a path to greater awareness of the conflict, but I guess it likes to keep the very enclosed feeling of isolation with the characters, remain 'apolitical' and leave us to do our own research.

Did you ever read a review and get the feeling that the reviewer is writing the review under the assumption that the review and reviewer will be reviewed? That's how many of the 'Monos' reviews read. The New York Times got this one right are. It was impossible to understand the movie in real time. Even when a few pieces, of action were glued together, the very serious, dark messages were weakly served. Patience and concentration we're not rewarded. If you wanna look very smart, watch the movie, or don't even, and write a puzzling, convoluted review of what might have happened in "Lord of the Flies" if Piggy had an automatic weapon!

See, most reviews here don't even care to analyze the conflict Colombia has lived for over 60 years where this youth recruiting has happened continuously. It's cinematography is perfect, music stunning and it tells the truth without showing a side: no guerrilla or paramilitares boots. This is a conflict that has killed thousands of lives. Study your history before watching it and you'll get why this film is so important for Colombians -and for the world.