Monsters

Narrative Feature, SX Fantastic
D: Gareth Edwards; with Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able

It’s not a question that gets asked a lot these days: What if you merged two of Toho Studio’s resident kaiju eiga master Ishirô Honda’s most underwhelming non-Gojira creatures – Yog, Monster From Space and Dagora, the Space Monster (interstellar neighbors, one presumes) – and then added a spare, two-person storyline that plays not on the dwindling-returns notion of spectacular alien invasion (cf, Cloverfield, District 9) but on the emotional and spiritual human cost to those outside Fortress America? Brit director and former digital effects supervisor Edwards does just that, and the resulting film is a minor masterpiece of humanistic subtlety that feels like Cary Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre by way of a particularly poignant season of Lost. But honestly, you’ve never truly seen anything like this beautifully conceived and artfully executed slice of slyly sweet monster-movie agitprop. And we guarantee the penultimate scene will have your eyes brimming – not with fear, but with hope.

Thursday, March 18, 11:59pm, Lamar 1

This article appears in March 19 • 2010.

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