Verdict
Summary
Monolith is an odd duck of a science fiction story nicely realized by its filmmaker Matt Vesely, and it takes a patient viewer to stick with it, as the camera is constantly on its lead actress, only straying away for a few brief flashbacks to visualize what some of her phone guests are describing, but the journey is part of the film’s unusual charm.
Plot:
A podcaster finds herself stumbling into a vast conspiracy that fuels her interest … and her fears.
Review:
A podcaster (billed as “The Interviewer,” played by Lily Sullivan) sits at her desk in her isolated home with its wide windows looking out into a scenic locale, and she reaches deep into her deck of possible subjects to build a new episode from for her show “Beyond Believable,” a sort of Unsolved Mysteries or paranormal conspiracy podcast. She’s been in the proverbial doghouse for a while after not fact-checking her sources and skirting around ethics (she records every conversation, despite the fact that she only sometimes informs her interviewees about), and so she desperately needs a great show to wipe the slate clean. On a fluke, she stumbles into an odd and befuddling story about a woman who received an object that seems to make no sense: A black brick that shows up without cause or purpose. The woman is freaked out by it and explains to The Interviewer that since receiving the brick, strange things have been happening to her, and then The Interviewer is intrigued enough to begin building a show around that. She edits and fudges the interview to suit her needs, and releases it as a teaser of possible more to come. Within a day, the teaser has a huge response and she is compelled to search for more similar stories. She finds several: One man – possibly a charlatan – claims to have received several bricks and has a very weird story to go along with it, and then another couple of stories come into her feed, and before she knows it, the stories are all but creating themselves and she’s got a viral episode in the making. Where are the bricks coming from? What do they mean, if anything? After digging (the entire movie is set in the woman’s living room) on the internet, she uncovers a decades-long cover-up or conspiracy involving these strange black bricks, and things get really wild when she may have received one many years ago and has forgotten all about it. When the black brick story manifests before her very eyes (and ours), The Interviewer is really in for a life changing realization when the purpose of the brick comes to vivid, startling life, turning her podcast into reality.
Monolith is an odd duck of a science fiction story nicely realized by its filmmaker Matt Vesely, and it takes a patient viewer to stick with it, as the camera is constantly on its lead actress, only straying away for a few brief flashbacks to visualize what some of her phone guests are describing, but the journey is part of the film’s unusual charm. It does lead to something, and it’s a little unnerving and creepy if you’re paying close attention to the conversations, and so viewers are rewarded with something, which is important because sometimes these low budget one-location concept movies tend to take the viewer on a long, boring ride that goes nowhere and reveals nothing. It’s definitely an oddity, though, and thankfully lead actress Sullivan is compelling enough for a movie to be centered entirely around. The plot is fascinating, and the big reveal is memorable, so it’s a win for us.
Well Go USA’s recent Blu-ray release of Monolith (it’s also on DVD) comes with an audio commentary, a behind-the-scenes feature, and the trailer, as well as bonus trailers. It’s affordably priced to own.
