One of those films that leaves you sitting in the movie theater just trying to process. Takes your expectations and perceptions and continually twists and subverts them in absolutely brilliant, engrossing ways. Kore'eda in top form!
Monster (怪物)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Japan
- 2023
- · 126m
Director
Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast
Sakura Ando,
Eita Nagayama,
Hinata Hiiragi,
Mitsuki Takahata,
Akihiro Kakuta,
Shido Nakamura
Genre
Drama
When a single mother notices her young son Minato is behaving strangely, she feels that there is something wrong and discovers one of his teachers is to blame. After she confronts him, the truth is slowly revealed through the son, the mother, and the teacher’s perspectives.
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What are critics saying?
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
This is one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.
91
Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy
This is harsh and acid stuff, but it's exhilarating on a number of counts. For one thing, Jenkins moves with real authority between scenes of low life, tender intimacy and gripping violence; made on the cheap, her film has the iron certainty of the best art.
90
Film Threat by Mark Sells
A film that you can appreciate, but it’s also one that may be difficult to watch. Because it is so course, because it is so authentic, and because the characters are so real, you feel a closeness to Lee that may be uncomfortable.
90
The New Yorker by David Denby
If the notoriously squeamish and slumberous members of the Academy can pull themselves together and face Monster, they should know whom to vote for as the best actress of the year. [26 January 2004, p. 84]
90
The New Republic by Stanley Kauffmann
It is Theron who transmutes and sustains this journey through the lower depths.
90
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
Theron has rendered herself 100 percent unrecognizable. Not since Robert De Niro morphed into hulk dimensions to play heavyweight boxer Jake La Motta in "Raging Bull" has there been a transformation this powerful and effective.
90
Dallas Observer by Gregory Weinkauf
This is a powerhouse of a film, but not for the obvious reasons that it's about a female serial killer, scampering lesbians and whatever. The project's strength instead emerges from a sense of nobility and purpose in honoring its characters.
90
Salon by Stephanie Zacharek
Monster is a compassionate picture without any obvious agenda. And it's effective precisely because it's not a polemic.
89
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
Doesn’t provide any answers, and that’s both its strength and weakness.
88
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
A compelling, thought-provoking, and unsettling drama.
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