Popular reviews

• 

  Review by matt lynch ★★★ 1

  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 7

  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 indi ★★★★ 2

  wow groot really punched a hole right through my fucking chest thanks for that

• 

  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 G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★★ 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 iana ★★★½

  there’s a blanket the kid covers himself with at one point and it looks like the harry styles cardigan that’s my only observation

• 

  Review by Eli Hayes ★★★★ 4

  guess I always should've assumed that one of those Ents was Liam Neeson.

• 

  Review by DirkH ★★½ 4

  Taken 4: Ent Game

• 

  Review by Dawson Joyce ★★★★★

  Tackling dark and mature themes with brutal honesty, intelligence, heart, stunningly beautiful visuals, and wonderful performances across the board, A Monster Calls is a heart-shattering and emotionally exhausting fantasy drama from writer Patrick Ness and director J.A. Bayona.

• 

  Review by kyle97 ★★★★ 3

  Wow I had very high expectations for this movie after reading Patrick Ness's novel and I was really impressed by how the movie turned out.

  I’ve been a fan of J.A. Bayona since I saw The Orphanage, which is a great horror film. In A Monster Calls, Bayona’s creative vision complements the imaginations of Patrick Ness, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie, very well. This is a very compelling drama with fantastical elements that work on a metaphorical level. As a film about terminal illness, bullying, and anger, A Monster Calls never came off to me as emotionally manipulative or overwrought. Some parts of the movie are told through stunning water-colored animation, which genuinely makes for some stunning…

• 

  Review by Austin Gorski ★★★★½ 3

  The first film I've genuinely cried while watching in a very long time.

  How is this not getting awards buzz?