Monster
Anthony Mandler’s powerful debut frames knee-jerk racism in a poetic tirade against American bias.
Guilty by suspicion: Kelvin Harrison Jr, Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson
Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is the eponymous monster. He’s young, he’s black and he comes from Harlem. And he’s on trial for murder. There is even CCTV footage of him at the scene of the crime. And when the jury first files into the courtroom, all they see is a criminal. Because it’s hard-wired into the American system to do so.
The last time we saw Kelvin Harrison Jr was in the courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. And now he’s back in front of the bench, guilty until proven innocent. When he’s first arrested, the presumption is clear. What is his gang? What is his prison record? Does he have Aids? Steve Harmon is actually a hard-working visionary from a good home, a 17-year-old student dreaming of film school. The family dynamic – his parents are played by Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson – is perhaps a little too good to be true, but the nurturing atmosphere is credible. And then Steve’s skin colour turns his life into hell. In prison, he deconstructs his existence as if it were a script, to distance himself from the inhumanity about him. In the dark, he tells us, “Since they took me from my home, the only thing the dark has given me are the shakes and shivers that remind me I am alive.”
Monster was actually shot two years prior to The Trial of the Chicago 7, in which the actor played Black Panther activist Fred Hampton. Considering the subject matter and the talent involved, it’s a mystery that Monster has lain so low since its premiere at Sundance in January of 2018. Only last November did Netflix acquire the distribution rights – after the talent involved had made their mark elsewhere. The co-writer Radha Blank has since garnered a mantelpiece-full of awards, including a Bafta nomination for The Forty-Year-Old Version, which she wrote, directed and starred in. And co-star John David Washington, who previously appeared alongside Harrison Jr in Monsters and Men, went on to headline the only bona fide blockbuster of 2020, Tenet. The film’s director Anthony Mandler has since shot two concert documentaries and a post-Civil War drama, Surrounded (with Letitia Wright and Jamie Bell), building on his expansive back catalogue of music videos.
Besides eliciting consummate performances from a terrific cast – Harrison Jr, Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson, Jennifer Hudson and Jeffrey Wright are all terrific – Mandler brings a poetic sensibility to the film that reflects the aesthetic of his protagonist. Steve Harmon is forever framing his hands in front of his face, a gesture that ultimately leads to his undoing. And so the narrative, elegantly edited by Joe Klotz, is a free-form flow of imagery as seen through Harmon’s eyes and his illusory lens. Harmon’s truth must find its own point-of-view, as he is instructed by his film club mentor (an inspiring Tim Blake Nelson) – following a screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon. As his own star witness, Harmon is obliged to tell his story. And it’s a story that demands to be told.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr, Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson, Nasir 'Nas' Jones, Rakim Mayers, Paul Ben-Victor, John David Washington, Jharrel Jerome, Dorian Missick, Jennifer Hudson, Jeffrey Wright, Willie C. Carpenter, Rege Lewis, Jonny Coyne, Lovie Simone, Liam Obergfol, Mikey Madison, Nyleek Moore, Jackson Francis Greene, Amanda Crown.
Dir Anthony Mandler, Pro Tonya Lewis Lee, Nikki Silver, Aaron L. Gilbert, Mike Jackson and Edward Tyler Nahem, Ex Pro John Legend, Screenplay Radha Blank, Cole Wiley and Janece Shaffer, based on the novel by Walter Dean Myers, Ph David Devlin, Pro Des Jeremy Reed, Ed Joe Klotz, Music Harvey Mason Jr, ‘Fall from Grace’ performed by John Legend, Costumes Mobolaji Dawodu.
Bron Studios/Charlevoix Entertainment/Get Lifted Film Company/Tonik Productions/Red Crown Productions/Creative Wealth Media-Netflix.
99 mins. USA. 2018. Rel: 7 May 2021. Available on Netflix. Cert. 15.
