a [Trace] Lysette performance that we should be considering as one of the greatest performances put to film in recent years

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 4, 2024

It may not be the snappiest film in the world, but what it lacks in haste it makes up for in characterisation. Though we spend a good portion watching the family simply function by itself, Lysette has anchored this film with a giant beating heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 30, 2024

Such emphasis on the unspoken makes Monica a welcome reprieve from the type of standard-issue dramas that might bake in showy confrontations and cathartic exhalations.

| Feb 29, 2024

This is what watching independent film in particular, and cinema in general, is all about. I saw this movie early in the year and it has stuck with me, and even improved with time.

| Feb 29, 2024

It’s heart breaking and genuine, with so many agonising questions lingering over pregnant pauses and small talk.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 24, 2023

The tone is hushed and a bit weepy, but Italian filmmaker Andrew Pallaoro has a terrific eye for detail, capturing scenes from askance angles that stress emotions rather than plot points.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 19, 2023

Monica is beautifully acted, not least in the play-off between Clarkson — alternating weary spikiness with bursts of agonised distress — and the gentle, detached reserve that is Lysette’s main register here.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 18, 2023

A film of quiet but considerable power.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 17, 2023

Instead of an overt familial melodrama, Pallaoro and Orlando Tirado tell this story with tenderness.

| Dec 14, 2023

While one admires Trace Lysette’s subtle, low-key performance, it’s hard not to wish that occasionally some sparks would fly. Writer-director Andrea Pallaoro has crafted a movie very much designed for admiration at film festivals.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2023

It's a shame that a multifaceted character like Monica isn't given more of a voice, and while the film proves sporadically engaging, it could have had greater impact.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 7, 2023

Both Clarkson and Lysette are great at saying so much with so little. Pallaoro lets each moment speak for itself so the inherent emotion of their performances never gets undercut by redundant dialogue.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 1, 2023

Monica is a nuanced piece of cinema and one that is about the dignity of finding completeness in oneself in what was thought lost.

| Sep 24, 2023

Monica’s restraint is to its credit: by not laying the drama on thick, all sorts of poignant nuances are allowed to bubble up.

| Sep 2, 2023

Trace Lysette gives a magnetic performance in a film that is sometimes limited by mundane scenes. A lot of credit should be given to this drama for not going down a stereotypical path of setting up a deadly tragedy for the transgender protagonist.

| Aug 20, 2023

The gorgeously constructed first half feels like a labor of love for Lysette, Pallaoro and crew, who chose a lush, counterintuitive color palette for Monica

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Trace Lysette has great screen presence.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 30, 2023

The anxiety to show forgiveness and acceptation erases any rough edge within the family, making it pulpous and somewhat unfulfilling...

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 30, 2023

It takes a very delicate screenplay to convey a story like this without dipping into egregious exposition and melodrama, and it takes nuanced performers to pull it off.

| Jun 7, 2023

Trace Lysette is terrific in one of the best performances of the year. The slow-burn drama isn’t concerned with how we got here, but how do we fix it. Forgiveness is the first step. Andrea Pallaoro’s third feature film is powerful.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 4, 2023