Entertainment that was well-received by critics but that I didn't like. It has an originality that arouses our curiosity, maintaining a good atmosphere of suspense for a while, until it becomes tiresome, meaningless, without explanations and with an already "beaten" ending for the podcast talking about a monolith

It was good for about 70% of the movie and then took a turn for the worst! The storyline got confusing as though there was a rush to end it.

An excellent, mysterious, and self contained film.

One of the best “COVID Era” movies I’ve seen (although released in US theaters in 2024, it was filmed in 2022 and shown at the Adelaide Film Festival), Monolith has the obvious inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but is contained in one house with one actor appearing on-screen (Lily Sullivan) whose connection to greater society is a mystery to the very end. What begins with an anonymous email transpires into a story of childhood guilt. “The Interviewer” (Sullivan) is trying to rehabilitate her tarnished reputation after a defamation suit cratered her journalism career. Like a true journalist, she disregards all warnings to “stop asking questions” when her podcast concerning a “black brick” garners attention from all over the world. These “bricks” are mysterious and tantalizing with their origins uncertain and powers maddening. Kudos to Sullivan who carries this story with a range of emotions. The ending, while creepy, may leave you unsatisfied. Nevertheless, I’m with the critics on this one (84/45). It’s not so much horror and barely Sci-Fi, but definitely a gripping, one-woman, family-drama thriller.

This was a fantastic sci-fi thriller! And for me, there's nothing better than a sci-fi thriller. Can someone please tell me where I can buy my brick?

This movie blow my mind awesomeee

Strange phenomena unfolded onto certain dates just to formulaically serve amidst the psychologically-edged absorbent till manifesting under brow-raising affirmation and a captivating twist to solidify both its engagement and convoluting focus. It flattens its own dimension with enough considered tangibility to grasp in complimenting its intelligent build being expertly voiced by Lily Sullivan to also personify symptomatic effects through this slightly thrilling showcase cautiously treading into the unknown. (B)

JEDER MUSS EINEN PODCAST HABEN Eine in Ungnade gefallene Journalistin hat nun ihren eigenen Podcast in dem es um Verschwörungstheorien und anderen Humbug geht. Als jedoch die Geschichte um einen schwarzen Backstein immer mehr Fahrt aufnimmt sieht sie ihre Chance gekommen. Denn dieser Backstein scheint nicht von dieser Welt zu sein. Monolith geht ca. 94 Minuten und ist ab 12 Jahren freigegeben. Wir haben hier einen Sci-Fi-Thriller in dem es um eine Verschwörung geht und nur eine Podcasterin kann dieses Geheimnis aufdecken, was sonst. Wir bekommen hier eine Geschichte reingedrückt die von der Idee her spannend klingt, überall werden Leute krank und alles hat einen Zusammenhang mit diesen schwarzen Backstein. Allerdings sehen wir ca. 60 Minuten lang unsere Hauptfigur am Telefon, vorm Laptop sitzen oder am Telefon. Das machte es für mich unglaublich langatmig, da ich die meisten Gespräche uninteressant fand. Zu dem passiert nicht viel was einen bei der Stange hält, erst in den letzten 30 Minuten kommt etwas Schwung in die Sache und lässt einen ein wenig mitfiebern. Dies ist nicht wirklich ein schlechter Streifen, die Idee ist gut und auch die Auflösung macht etwas her. Mich faszinierte er nur nicht und daher ließen mich die Figuren kalt sowie die Handlung. Das Finale dreht dann voll auf, Dinge passieren schlagartig egal ob es Sinn macht oder nicht, aber hey Aliens wieso drüber nachdenken. Zu dem wird das Ende relativ offen gelassen, für mich jedenfalls, aber da war mein Interesse schon gen Null gesunken. Am Ende bleibt ein Werk das mich leider nie erreichte da Figur, Story und Darstellung einfach nicht funktionierten um den Funken zu entfachen. Denn die Idee ist gar nicht verkehrt und Aliens sowieso gruselig. Von mir bekommt der Film 5/10 Punkten. Jeder Dulli heutzutage braucht nen Podcast, allerdings scheint ja ein reges Interesse zu bestehen.

This movie had a terrible ending. Definitely a waste of time watching this one.

I found it rather disappointing. The concept was interesting; but by the end of the movie, I wanted my time back.

Simple but yet effective thriller….third act could have had a bit tighter direction and less scrambled plot line - perhaps the ambiguity was intentional but it is too amorphous to get to a 4 star rating.

The plot of the movie had a decent beginning, but slowly turned into a confusing mess of characters and storyline. The idea was a possibility, but it was executed poorly, almost as if it was rushed after the second half.

When it comes to horror and sci fi films, I almost always defer to the audience reviews. Monolith has broken this trend. The critics are spot on as this gem of a movie craftly builds up the tension to a creepy and chilling ending. Monolith is a clever piece of minalimistic film making that I could not take my eyes off of.

Minimalistic and paranoid is this story in a nutshell.

This was amazing for the first 80%, I was all in, but then they couldn't figure out what the story was, or how to wrap this up in any type of cohesive way, it was obtuse and then was just over, with no climax or explanation of any kind.

Started out great with a very unique plot, however it really frayed out by the third act and lost its steam. Hated the ambiguous ending.

I thought this film was pretty good. There's an economy and precision at work here that belies it's nonexistent budget. I was pretty engaged throughout considering it's one location, one character production. That's hard to do. In the wrong hands this could've easily drifted off into snoozeland, but the director's deft hand and, I can imagine, some very efficient editing, kept it going at a steady, if not thrilling, pace. There were metaphors galore all over the place and I think the wafer thin sci-fi context was rightly minimized for the dramatic themes the movie was trying to convey. I had no problem with the non-explanations following the final climax. It's just not that kind of sci-fi. Definitely worth a watch.

It's not perfect but it is worth a watch. Considering the microscopic budget, it is impressive. It can be taken as a sci-fi horror and ultimately aliens are invading. But it also works as metaphor for the podcaster's descent into psychosis and eventually a complete break. To me, that is the message and the virus spread by word of mouth is a conspiracy theory. We see a disgraced journalist who continues to be unethical. It's clear by the end, that Paula sent the original email and she's been baited into a fake story. Is this all of this a vision? Is she hallucinating? We see how a person -possibly already battling mental illness- racked with guilt and unprocessed trauma can feed off these conspiracy theories to the point they lose themselves in the abyss... or rabbit hole -in this case. Well done.

I wish I could give this film a higher rating because most of it is truly tense, unnerving and frightening, but the final fifteen minutes turns this formerly brilliant sci-fi thriller into a cliche, open-ended mess that forgoes all creativity for a cheap cop-out. Lily Sullivan gives an award-worthy performance, but damn, those final minutes.

Decent movie that I found interesting. Wasn't what I thought it was going to be, which is fine.