MONOS Trailer

Madness descends in Monos, the latest from director Alejandro Landes.

Pulling quite liberally from The Lord of the Flies, this tale of teenage soldiers watching over an American hostage doesn’t promise to be a fun time at the theater, but the adventurous viewer will be rewarded with a sumptuous nightmare that humanizes but does not pardon the child soldiers. The trailer shows off its languid pace but also the lingering threat of violence, and once that really kicks into gear, you know all hell will break loose.

Landes is looking to put his name on the map with this picture, building on the critical success of his debut, Porfirio, to gain even bigger festival showings and a larger international release. The film’s dreamlike quality and largely unknown cast (Julianne Nicholson will be the only recognizable face to many people) makes this a hard sell, and yet it picked up distributors quickly after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

That’s because this movie is that good. Full disclosure: I caught this at Sundance, and it’s a shoe-in for my personal best of the year list. With a ton of great performances (particularly Sofia Buenaventura and Moises Arias) and some brutal, sustained real-life horror, it’s one that stuck with me, and I implore you to see it on the big screen with a great sound system (almost forgot to mention that it’s scored by Mica Levi).

Monos is directed by Alejandro Landes and stars Sofia Buenaventura, Moises Arias, and Julianne Nicholson. It will be released in the US on September 13th, 2019 and in the UK on October 25th, 2019. For international release dates, click here.

Did I convince you to check this out? Let us know in the comments!