Monos

This film felt very much made for me, to the extent that there's a character that director Alejandro Landes describes as being "post gender", and this sense of "post" seems to linger throughout much of the film's sentiments in a way I'm not sure I have the language to diligently articulate. What I can say is that everything about Monos is suffocating; the monolithic stills, the ethereally foggy colour grading, the diegetic sounds which are somehow both subtle yet cacophonous. Intimate moments are drawn out and heady, only to dissolve into blasts of violence. Psychedelic montages are always a favourite of mine and this one was such a joy to soak in. From an aesthetical viewing point, I found nothing I could fault, and that's not to say it's narrative is lacking in substance. Through Monos, Alejandro Landes seeks only to paint a vignette of war that is as insidiously fatuous, indignant, and indiscriminate as war itself.. and in that, he succeeds.