Monster

Kore-eda at his most ambitious and refined level of filmmaking. It’s easy for a Rashomon style story like this to get messy but Kore-Eda perfectly weaves together an intricate story of multiple perspectives exposing our inherent biases and projected prejudices. We were the Monster all along. I’ve been a fan of Kore-eda’s humanistic and delicate approach to filmmaking for a while but this film fully realizes his experience and skill in storytelling. A tender character study that inspires its audience to recognize the Monster hiding in all of us. Kore-Eda’s masterpiece and a high point in his career. Rewatching this has reaffirmed this as my favorite film of all time as its subject matter is also something I find personal to me.  A film I see never leaving my top 4.