时间:2025-04-03 12:10:04 来源:网络整理编辑:時尚
It almost sounds like a challenge: Can you make a feature length movie with only one on-screen actor
It almost sounds like a challenge: Can you make a feature length movie with only one on-screen actor, one location, and a budget of less than half a million?
Written by Lucy Campbell and shot by Matt Vesely, eerie sci-fi mystery Monolithexists within these potentially tricky parameters. Almost the entire movie takes place in a modern, isolated house in the rolling Adelaide Hills, South Australia, following a disgraced journalist (Lily Sullivan) as she yarn-balls a weird global enigma for her new podcast series. The film could easily have been a dismally failed experiment, but Monolith's logistical restrictions actually help it shine, adding a claustrophobia and sense of realism that only heightens the core mystery.
SEE ALSO:15 best sci-fi movies on Hulu that you can watch right nowAfter being publicly accused of failing to check her sources for a major story, a discredited reporter retreats to her wealthy parents' country home outside of Adelaide to work on a new podcast: Beyond Belief, a deep dive into unexplained mysteries. With the pressure to find a story building, one suddenly lands in her inbox: a phone number and an ambiguous "the truth will out" message.
Soon the journalist is on the trail of a strange phenomenon that appears to be happening across the globe: bizarre black bricks that turn up in people's lives, usually at a time of distress, and which contain bizarre symbols inside them that aren't from any recognisable language.
The story itself is creepy enough, but when strange occurrences start happening in the protagonist's life, it becomes clear that there's more at play.
If it was easy to make a film for less than AUD$500,000 (£258,000 / USD$330,000), everyone would be doing it, wouldn't they? The thing is, Monolithmakes it lookeasy. Campbell's script utilises podcast interviews and tense phone calls to add a sense of creepy realism, while Vesely adds in slow-moving cutaways to bring the interviewees' stories to life without the need for special effects.
Partway through I did wonder if the movie couldhave been a podcast — and it probably would have worked — but then we'd lose out on the unsettling visuals, Sullivan's brilliant lead performance, and the perfect filming location (seriously, whoever found this glass-filled modern house, surrounded by misty grey vistas, deserves an award of their own). Sullivan is on screen for almost all of Monolith's 94-minute runtime, pacing anxiously between rooms like a prisoner, obsessively editing audio files and gazing out at the hilly, gum tree-lined surroundings with the increasing fear of a woman who feels observed. Sullivan plays this role perfectly, with the layers of her character peeling back as the story progresses and her own life intersects with the mystery she's exploring.
The tricky thing about films that ask big questions is that you inevitably end up wanting a big answer. You want to know if the conspiracy is real, or if something otherworldly exists, even if that’s not the main point of the film. Monolithfalls into this category, and its ending will subsequently divide people. Without going too far into spoiler territory there's an underlying ambiguity to the movie that doesn't disappear by the end credits. But arguably the story is as much about mental illness, our pasts, and the devastating effect both these things can have on us in the present, as it is about the possibility of an extraterrestrial conspiracy. The film's ambiguous tone allows these themes to be explored simultaneously, and work in a dark harmony together.
Ultimately, Monolithis a film of unease. It builds and builds and, like the protagonist's questions about the mysterious objects and her own past, it doesn't go away.
How to watch:Monolithis in theaters from Feb 16.
TopicsReviews
Aly Raisman catches Simone Biles napping on a plane like a champion2025-04-03 11:59
姆巴佩問鼎2021環足獎最佳球員 萊萬獲馬拉多納獎2025-04-03 11:43
姆巴佩 :現在談加盟皇馬不合適 隻考慮歐冠淘汰他們2025-04-03 11:25
國安為何不啟用新人鍛煉隊伍? 對勝利的欲望已不如對手2025-04-03 11:10
Whyd voice2025-04-03 11:03
海港官方:外援保利尼奧右手舟骨骨折 已返回上海治療2025-04-03 10:48
劉智宇 :球員靠對足球的熱愛來比賽 鄭智還會上場2025-04-03 10:40
滄州主帥 :隊內發生爭執後變得更團結 希望泰山隊踢好亞冠2025-04-03 10:27
Plane makes emergency landing after engine rips apart during flight2025-04-03 09:56
廣州隊主帥:鄭智首發是隊內研究後做出決定 後三場仍有機會2025-04-03 09:50
Katy Perry talks 'Rise,' her next batch of songs, and how to survive Twitter2025-04-03 12:01
專訪郝偉 :老婆生病都沒告訴我 成長道路上最感謝斯科拉裏2025-04-03 12:00
馬德興評泰山奪冠:成功來自堅定培養本土教練和球員2025-04-03 11:36
新華社:當一些球隊被打回原形 山東泰山的穩定尤為可貴2025-04-03 10:51
Tributes flow after death of former Singapore president S.R. Nathan2025-04-03 10:37
35勝!112球!瓜式曼城閃耀英超史冊 進球榜霸前四2025-04-03 10:36
轉會通 :紅軍PK拜仁爭薩拉赫替身 尤文再追伊卡爾迪2025-04-03 10:15
紅魔名宿 :曼聯這麽踢朗尼克遲早下課 C羅已成毒瘤2025-04-03 10:09
Mom discovers security cameras hacked, kids' bedroom livestreamed2025-04-03 09:29
揭秘申花00後新星成長幕後:用場下加練 場上狂奔贏得認可2025-04-03 09:25