‎A Monster Calls (2016) directed by J. A. Bayona • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

A Monster Calls

2016 Directed by J. A. Bayona

Stories are wild creatures.

A boy imagines a monster that helps him deal with his difficult life and see the world in a different way.

Lewis MacDougall Sigourney Weaver Felicity Jones Toby Kebbell Liam Neeson Geraldine Chaplin Jennifer Lim James Melville Lily-Rose Aslandogdu Dominic Boyle Max Gabbay Oliver Steer Ben Moor Frida Palsson

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★ 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Weird GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY prequel about how the tree man helps young Star Lord deal with his mom dying.
Review by davidehrlich ★★½ 12

Pan's Labyrinth for kids dealing with cancer. dark, dull, and didactic, but could be helpful to those in need. do yourself a favor and see KUBO instead.

and now, the unfairness: my dad died of cancer a few months ago. this film gets a lot of the inner turmoil right (and crucially so), but if your cancer-related tearjerker does nothing for me at this point... that's on you.
Review by Evan ★★★½ 3

TIFF 2016 Film #13

A Monster Calls touched the depths of my soul. Visually stunning, well acted, and filled with emotion this film had me fully engaged. I was pretty much in tears the entirety of the final 20 minutes and so was everyone else. You could hear the sniffling echoing through out the theater. I won't spoil it, but this one line absolutely wrecked me to my core. While most of the emotion is earned, I will say that it is somewhat manipulative.
Review by Travis Lytle ★★★★½ 4

A fantasy about the all-too real ways humans deal with loss, Juan Antonio Bayona's "A Monster Calls" offers a cinematic heart that beats with anger, sadness, and inspiring vigor. Based on Patrick Ness's novel, the film the tells the story of a young boy whose struggle with life and loss reflect the universal education that is human existence.

Revolving around young Conor O'Malley, "A Monster Calls" finds the boy dealing with school bullies, a cantankerous grandmother, and, most importantly, a dying mother. Conor spends his days caring, as best he can, for his mother, drawing, and recoiling from both literal and figurative nightmares. When a monstrous, lumbering tree with fiery eyes appears at his window, Conor begins a journey that…
Review by 🎃 Steve of the Dead 🎃 ★★★★ 4

My 9 year old daughter's enthusiasm for seeing A Monster Calls after being rather excited by the trailers for it we had seen wasn't quite treated to the tale about a friendly talking tree that saves a boy from being bullied that she hoped it would be.

"That wasn't quite what I expected," she commented as we exited the cinema. "But it was really, really good!"

The fact that she spent practically the whole film perched on the edge of her seat was clue enough to me that she really enjoyed it, and understandably so. It's not quite like any film she had watched before or that we had watched together (we watch one together every Saturday, at the cinema…
Review by CJ Probst ★★★★ 7

All those years ago I remember sitting in the theater watching The Lord of the Rings, looking around and thinking, "Man, I really don't love these as much as everyone else in here." I recognized them as a spectacular achievement but was rather bored through them, just not for me. My least favorite parts of those films were the talking tree scenes. Every time one of those tedious bastards showed up that was my cue to shuffle my way out of the auditorium for a piss.

Sooooooo, A Monster Calls felt a little bit like an Ent trying his goddamned hardest to make me cry for just under two hours. As I was at a bit of a disadvantage due…

Recent reviews

Review by Rick Gebhardt ★★★★½

This hit all the right emotional notes and played my heartstrings like a harp. Even though this seemed to be targeted at the YA audience, there are some heavy elements in play (cancer, divorce, bullying, existential angst, depression, moral ambiguity...). I think this also hit me a bit hard as a new-ish dad since a major conflict throughout was dealing with the mortality of parents and how their children cope. I'd be lying if I said that I could watch this tear-free. And I didn't even touch on the beautiful monster design, animations, and superb acting. Despite hitting on a few themes hard, I loved every minute of this film.
Review by atlopez ★★★★½

"Most of us just get messily ever after."

this movie hits everywhere it's supposed to hit. a very nice, emotional, intelligent, artistic, tragic and beautiful movie. why do I like crying so much????????
Review by Lisa ★★★★★

This hit me hard.
Review by Luke ★★★★

Watch this movie to literally die on the spot once it's done.
Review by weakcoffees ★★★★★

this film fucked me up
Review by Ricky Villabona ★★★★

One of the few movies that drove me to tears. There is something about mother-son stories that do that to me. Same with. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Running on Empty.
Review by Max Nobel ★★★½

Processing pain through
Stories that too readily
Offer their meaning.
Review by weehunk ★★★

That's some pretty profound shit right there. A wee bit of a tear-jerker ala 'Terms of Endearment'. Incredible performance by Mr. MacDougall.
Review by Hamish White ★★★★

How this film tells it's story is nothing spectacular, but the story itself is beautiful. I can't remember another film I've ugly cried watching more than this one.

Pro tip: maybe don't watch this one on a plane like I did.