Maybe the post-apocalypse has its good points after all. The gorgeous genre film “Monster Problems” is now on Netflix.
Los Gatos – In times of pandemics, of course, you can’t say that out loud. But once you come to terms with it, the post-apocalypse might even gain a few good sides. Without a doubt, it does this for the huge insects that populate the earth in this film with the beautiful original title “Love and Monsters”. And the narrative protagonist Joel Dawson, played by Dylan O’Brien from the Maze Runner trilogy, owes a certain serenity to his bunker perspective: “I don’t think anyone was really shocked when it happened. We always thought it could happen, and then it just happened that way. “
Behind the “it” there is at least no atomic radiation, as it made the prospect of a Hollywood end impossible for many earlier film apocalypses. As we learn, scientists used chemical projectiles to defend themselves against a meteorite, the precipitation of which on earth produced bizarre monsters. It could have been worse.
To the movie
Monster problems. Canada / USA 2020. Director: Michael Matthews. 109 min. On Netflix.
Who still remembers Stanley Kramer’s pessimistic melodrama “The Last Shore”, which in 1959 made the stars Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner wrest at least one last romance from the last days of mankind? At that time, the monster films dealt with the generally poor prospects with more pleasure. Scientific or military mishaps caused spiders and insects to grow into giant creatures in “Taruntala” and “Formicula”.
“Monster Problems” on Netflix: Actually, love comes first
The young South African filmmaker Michael Matthews interweaves both of the driving forces behind these classic genre films, romance and horror, in the most pleasurable way imaginable. It’s a shame that Netflix, where the film is celebrating its German premiere today, has chosen the humorous “German” title “Monster Problems”. Because love comes first for Matthews for a reason.
After seven years in a cave shared apartment embellished with all sorts of trinkets, Joel decides to venture into the daylight. He finally wants to see his high school love affair Aimee (Jessica Henwick) again, who has escaped to another enclave tens of kilometers away. His companions are deeply concerned that he has never hit the mark with his primitive crossbow. It seems impossible that he will make it past the huge creatures that make an idyllically renatured surface of the earth unsafe.
“Monster Problems” on Netflix features impressive monsters
The real love of the film title belongs to the monsters. There is a gigantic frog with a sticky tongue that rises out of a pond like a moss-covered rock. Even more impressive is a slimy giant snail like the one Doctor Doolittle might have known. The figures are designed as artistically as if Tim Burton had created a Muppets film based on drawings by Alfred Kubin.
What all monsters have in common is their cute button eyes, which boldly look into turns out to be the best weapon. The visual effects were mainly created with analog means – and have already earned the film an Oscar nomination.
The designs of the set designer Dan Hennah can also be admired as drawings in the film: After successfully completing the duel, Joel immortalizes the monsters in a wonderful sketchbook. In addition to the many hand-made effects, these drawings also point to a simplicity that has largely been lost in genre cinema. At a cost of only $ 30 million, the film cost a tenth of many large blockbusters.
Shock effects and complex romance
The hero’s sketchbook is reminiscent of the animated film series “How To Train Your Dragon”. But the whole thing is not pure children’s amusement, even if the lusty innocence of the creatures can compete with Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla films. The shock effects (despite all harmlessness) are mounted too precisely for that. And romance too complex: After all, who would have really believed that one could win back one’s childhood love through fairytale bravery alone? These are probably the “Monster Problems” that the German title poet had in mind.
It usually doesn’t take a lot of connoisseurship to ponder a genre in a film review. The monster film, however, has become almost as rare as its mythological models. If there is ever a specimen that knows how to arouse innocent amazement without any condescension, it is an absolute rarity. “Love and Monsters”, which instead of a large theatrical release, is only celebrating its premiere as a stream on Netflix, is one of the cinematic victims of this pandemic. But also a wonderful consolation. (Daniel Kothenschulte)
