Monsters

Low Fi is maybe a better term for Gareth Edwards Sci Fi extravaganza Monsters in which director/writer/producer/Fx to go guy Gareth Edwards triumphs over budget and possible experience to create one of the most hyped up films of the year, to actually justify it's stirring hype from fans at SXSW and even down to local attractions at the EIFF.

Monsters starts out with it's titular title and runs with it's two leads Samantha (Whitney Able)a young attractive girl on her way home and Andrew (Scott McNairy)a photographer who works for Samantha's father who, with his hand on his heart poignantly justifies why he's here " you know what you father gives for a picture for a dead carcass $50,000 you know what he gives for a happy child ... nothing" and with this in mind our two hipster leads, with perfectly groomed hair and with only their shirts on their back to protect them, they set out on their journey to get home through the infected Zone and beyond to one heart breaking final shot.

Gareth Edwards places the film Six years after an alien attack pointing out "That if Cloverfield was like 9/11 then this is like Afghanistan". It's that where the film works, engrossing you into it's dilapidated land of Mexico. Gareth Edwards film has been typed up as low budgeter Sci-Fi film that goes leaps and bounds over its financial limitations to have ingeniously inspired effects but the film has something far more ingenious up its sleeve. Why has the film been picked up by Vertigo films and why are mainstream cinemas pushing the film forward for the masses to see instead of leaving it to the independent cinemas. Answer: Because it's effective and in my mind more effective than that of Cloverfield and District 9.

The strange thing about Monsters is it contains very few be that it was down to budgetary restraints or not the fact that the film contains very few monsters works in its favour. The story of monsters become's a stark piece of realism interweaving themes love, road trip discovery and America all with faded out indie style. The leads (who are now married in real life) work off each other with the script being highly improvised adding to the realism nature of the story. Of course I am sure that there was a faint outline for the script, but the fact that there chemistry is real, makes them seem real not characters from a monster movie.

The dialogue in the film verges on the deadpan "did you know that dolphins are mammals" but the script makes an impossible challenge seem possible. He went out to make a monster movie and instead came back with drama that works as a moving portrayal of two lost souls finding each other and maybe in real life that’s what happened but the brilliance behind monsters is it's not a monster movie. Of course there are political inclinations to the film trying to get to the border of America, the money system(5'000 for a ticket) and perhaps the discrimination that they face but even though we may think that the film verges on becoming pretentious and turning into a documentary (kids lie in the roads, people fighting a never ending war -I don't know if I have heard that on before)but the message even though exploited feels alarmingly real (who are the monsters ala Cronenberg) so Edwards can get points for moving me in that way.

So critics have been praising Edwards, film festivals up and down the country all praising Edwards for his half a million dollar budget and the wisdom to create those giant creepy crawlies. But Gareth Edwards as stated he has created "Afghanistan" and in that way has actually created a new breed of film-making. Taking the old, bringing in the geeky fan boy culture and creating what they think is the new and what they believe is right. Monster’s is an ingenious twist on the norm: a love letter to all things unconventional, inspiring and all things character driven. Monster’s is not the norm. Monster’s isn't really about monsters. Monster’s is set in the world of which we have come used to, through the eyes of our protagonist (perhaps).

Indeed it can be argued that monsters isn't about the menacing threat of something that isn't real but impending doom and metaphorical or maybe lets just take it as being plain awesome. Whatever you take it as, like contemporary’s (possibly now the godfathers) Godard and Videodrome’s very own Cronenberg it's a new form of filmmaking, a new wave form. New wave Sci-Fi is born which is open to interpretation.

Of course many will go in expecting District 9 and many will come out disappointed. But the few who do will come out with complete admiration, not only for inspiration from Edwards but because we have a new breed of talent something that rarely gets said. But the good doctor summed up the film Let the right one in perfectly "it's a movie about children that just so happens to involve vampires" well it an be said the same for Monsters a movie that is about two people finding their own connection with one and other that just so happens to involve monsters (even though the monsters do add to the film). But go in expecting something else entirely and you will come out with a lump in your throat, your hearts racing (it's is still thrilling with its danger) and your palms sweating. He went away with little money, a camera, a sometimes a six man crew and two leads and came back with Monsters, something completely different indeed.

*** 1/2 out of ****