To describe a film as having the ‘Rashomon effect’ refers to the 1950 psychological masterpiece ‘Rashomon’, which made famous the narrative technique of showcasing multiple contradictory interpretations or descriptions of a event to provide different perspectives or points of view of the same incident. At first I thought about describing ‘Monster’ as utilising the ‘Rashomon effect’ but as I watched on it becomes clear that rather than seeing multiple unreliable narratives/perspectives or lies from different characters, instead the film invites us to empathise with their fractured perspective by having the audience experience the story as they experience it. We start with a concerned mother noticing strange changes in her son brought about by a seemingly abusive teacher. Very quickly we see our expectations and moral judgements of good and evil, right and wrong and the motivations of characters are played like a flute by a artfully constructed narrative. With each new perspective of a character a new layer of truth is added and another layer of judgement is removed.

I was struck more and more with a building sensation of compassion and empathy as the seemingly black and white situations melt into morale grey. Human nature is to see ourselves as the central character of our world enabling us to so easily fall into the trap of thinking that what we see or think is truth. And yet we can never really fully know the truth of things, only our limited perspective. As this unfolding, twisting narrative structure gives way to greater and greater truth we are slowly confronted by a hidden love story that is quite devastating. I was reminded of my favourite film of last year the emotionally traumatising masterpiece ‘Close’ and of the brilliant psychological drama ‘The Hunt’. In the end one of the films best strengths it’s complex narrative becomes a bit of a hinderance to landing its emotional ending. By spending so much of the time uncovering a mystery, the final emotional impact though devastating could have been greater. With so many layers of building truth the ending perhaps becomes a lie that protects up from the truth. This film is oozing with narrative mastery and the acting of the young boys was so moving. It also contains a searing message that will stay with you as you leave the cinema. (I can’t really write about some of the message without spoilers) ‘Monster’ is a humanist call for us all to live with more empathy and compassion and remember that we can never know the full truth. 9/10

‘Monster’s University’ 2013

Director: Dan Scanlon

Stars: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi

‘A Pale-Imitation of A Pixar Classic : A Pastel Plot Without Real Light And Dark’. Last year with the release of the sub-par ‘Brave’ I declared that the golden age of Pixar had ended. ‘Monster’s University’ the prequel to the wildly successful ‘Monster’s Inc’ 2001, solidifies that opinion. This view was most painfully obvious in the unexciting climax. Though the film starts out as a cheerful reminisce in the vibrant Pixar pastel hues, the story-line develops in a flat-line manner without the unexpected, surprising and original plot highs and lows that is the hallmark of every great Pixar film. Uncle Walt famously stated that ‘for every laugh there must be a tear’. The laughs owe much to the former classic and the flat-line plot never reaches giddying highs or lows. Both ‘Brave’ and ‘Monster’s University’ suffer from the same lack of confidence, unwilling to be daring and challenging, instead creating plots that may help children face some life challenges and develop but follow a formulaic safe path. Where in a film about monsters scaring children are the truly scary moments? or the truly sorrowful moments? where is Pixar’s courage? Truly scary is when the Beast first encounters Belle, truly sad is the first 10mins of Up, truly complicated is as the characters of Toy Story hold hands in stoic acceptance of their impending death. All round an enjoyable film but left me yearning for the Pixar golden age.  7/10 B+