"A Monster Calls" (2016) Directed by JA Bayona

“Too old to be a kid. Too young to be a man”.

Based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd and written for the screen by Patrick Ness based on his novel of the same name, A Monster Calls is many things: exceptional, brilliant, heart breaking, originally unique, and these are just the tip of a huge list of superlatives I could apply to this film. It is also the third in a trilogy of Mother/Son stories directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and by far his most accomplished to date but which touches upon familiar themes throughout his cinematic work to date, those of life, death, dealing with mortality, childhood trauma, facing your fears and even facing the most difficult experience of all, that of the truth.

A Monster Calls is a fantasy fairy tale but one that is truly grounded in reality and where it truly excels and triumphs is by blurring the lines between fantasy and reality as well as introducing a really difficult subject matter into what should ostensibly be a children’s story but which is anything but. I couldn’t wait for the release of this film on New Years Day 2017 after seeing the trailer on my countless trips to my local cinema and A Monster Calls truly did not disappoint and nor does it on repeated viewings.

12:07am will never be the same again when you’ve watched this film and should you watch this film for the first time after reading these rambling words, take a healthy amount of tissues with you as you’re going to need them!

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "A Monster Calls" which was originally penned and published some years ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 28th January 2023 and which can now be read in full and for free (please also consider subscribing for free too!) via my Substack blog site and original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/a-monster-calls-2016-3019f83daeca

This spoiler free review is also integral to Volume 1 of my "essential film reviews collection". Each volume and e-book is £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, all volumes are available to read for free:

Volume 1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HHDL56

7 Volume Collection

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C4HZSTTH?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_a_lnk&storeType=ebooks

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.paypal.me/TheBlackfordBookClub
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

Thanks for watching!

Please "like", subscribe, and comment if you wish!

Thank you.