Monolith Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Monolith Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 15, 2024

Film funding is evidently hard enough that there are seminars built around writing micro budgeted features, which is according to some supplements on this disc exactly what helped to spark Monolith, a rather interesting film whose "high concept" may frankly have been more effective on paper than it ends up being on the screen. That said, the fact that this is a perceived "science fiction spectacular" with virtually no special effects and only one on screen character for the duration of the story certainly may make it a curio for some audiences. The fact that it also starts with a rather long sequence with no imagery whatsoever might comically be thought of as a way the filmmakers saved a little moolah as well as starting things off with an emphasis on audio, something that is salient to the entire plot, which ends with the focal character importuning the audience to "listen".

Many literary endeavors have hinged upon the conceit of a so-called "unreliable narrator" and something quite like that is at play in Monolith, albeit in this case courtesy of the sole on screen character, a discredited podcaster who is never named but is called the Interviewer (Lily Sullivan) in cast listings. The Interviewer wants whatever the audio equivalent of pageviews is, and that has evidently led to some questionable "journalistic" choices which has caused her to retreat to her parents' mansion in the country. While her parents are away, the Interviewer seeks to find some "hot" new story that will somehow reignite her career and reestablish her with some sort of reportage "cred".

That quest leads her to the frankly bizarre story of a maid named Floramae (voiced by Ling Cooper Tang), who tells a baffling tale of a perhaps magically enchanted brick whose genesis she can't explain but whose disappearance she lays at the feet of her employer. The Interviewer's further investigations disclose many of these mysterious bricks and that is the "McGuffin" of this often fascinating but probably too opaquely frustrating outing. Obviously, the very title of this film is going to evoke images of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in fact a third act vignette with the Interviewer stumbling through a static environment only to find another "version" of herself is almost willfully duplicative of elements of Dave's final (?) journey in the Kubrick classic, something that is also the case with some Ligeti-esque sound effects.

But without trying to sound indelicate, when an actual brick shows up in the story in a gruesome manner which still may strike some as unavoidably comical (if, yes, disturbing), the brick frankly looks like a "brick" of another kind, namely almost like a turd. That can't help but add a gonzo flavor to a wrap up that reminded me of another venerable enterprise, The X-Files, where more and more lavish attempts to explain an ever widening interlocking series of conspiracies basically just ends up being confusing. The layered screenplay by Lucy Campbell may take a few too many detours for its own good, but this is a rather auspicious debut, one that is matched by fledgling director Matt Vesely.

Monolith Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monolith is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. I haven't been able to track down authoritative info on this shoot, but cinematographer Michael Tessari's website actually lists his gear, which includes Arri Alexas, and this has what struck me as an "Alexa like" look. Virtually the entire film is almost slathered ina kind of blue-green ambience which supports a quasi-tropical Australian setting. Even interior scenes can have a predominance of cooler tones, but that said, close-ups of the the Interviewer are at least relatively natural looking in terms of flesh tones and the like. Detail levels are somewhat variant dependent on framings and lighting conditions, but almost without exception midrange and close-ups offer excellent fine detail levels. There's a slightly hazy look at time which may be the result of slightly wonky contrast, but which doesn't seriously deplete clarity or general detail.

Monolith Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Monolith features a really immersive and nicely layered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. While the narrative elements of the film are relatively straightforward, offering the Interviewer making audio recordings of various people (which she later tweaks to her own purposes with editing software), the entire sound design here is often awash with weird hallucinatory thumps, those aforementioned Ligeti-esque voices, and other seemingly spectral events which waft through the side and rear channels quite disturbingly at times. All spoken material is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional English subtitles are available.

Monolith Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (HD; 7:49)


• Trailer (HD; 2:17)


• Writer, Producer and Director Audio Commentary features Lucy Campbell, Bettina Hamilton and Matt Vesely, and is accessible under the Setup Menu.

Monolith Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A duplicitous "journalist" on the hunt for the next "big" story has been the fodder for untold previous films (Ace in the Hole of course springs instantly to mind), but for better or worse Monolith has a lot else on its mind than that "simple" fact. Monolith's reach may indeed exceed its grasp, but this is a really ambitious project that manages to sustain interest if not always complete coherence. Lily Sullivan is impressive in a role which requires her non-stop presence. Technical merits are solid, and with a few passing caveats noted, Monolith comes Recommended.