Monster
Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMay 6, 2021
Monster is a terrific film: a strong, absorbing, beautifully performed and crafted social drama that, unfortunately, proves even timelier today than when it was shot in 2017. Read full review
80
SlashfilmSteven ProkopyMay 7, 2021
An ambitious, complex, and layered look at how the court system in America is virtually designed to keep defendants like Steve from every getting a chance at actual justice. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 7, 2021
This is an A-list cast that consistently elevates the material, even when we’re traveling down some very familiar roads. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleChris VognarMay 6, 2021
If Monster occasionally shows its YA roots with flashes of simplicity, it also tells a lean, propulsive story with style and grace. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 7, 2021
Monster is a good movie that could have been a better one. Mandler needs to trust both his film and his audience more. Give him points for trying, but he’s just trying too hard. Read full review
67
The PlaylistLeslie Byron PittMay 7, 2021
One of the strongest aspects of Monster lies in the film’s well-picked, finely tuned cast. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 7, 2021
It’s solid, well-acted, thought-provoking fare, if rarely rising to the level of inspired. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMay 7, 2021
It’s in many ways a minor, almost mundane, story with an ending that chooses the small over the big but it resonates just about enough, a quiet scream in the darkness, now able to be heard in living rooms across the world. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandMay 11, 2021
Harrison is one of our finest young actors, capable of eliciting great empathy and always conveying deep interiority, and saddling him with a derivative monologue only serves to take us out of his head, and mostly out of his performance. Read full review
55
CNNBrian LowryMay 7, 2021
Ultimately, though, the movie feels most notable for the cast assembled, from Harrison -- who subsequently starred in "Waves" and "Luce," and is again very good here -- to smallish roles for Jerome (an Emmy winner for "When They See Us") as a witness and Washington ("Tenet" and "BlacKkKlansman") as James' partner in crime. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 10, 2021
Adapted from a novel by Walter Dean Myers, Monster is the story of not just one kid but many kids. It’s harrowing in its believability alone. If only it were a better movie. Read full review
50
The PlaylistJordan RuimyMay 7, 2021
Mandler’s background before shooting his narrative feature debut was in music videos and commercials, but the ADD-style filmmaking he uses for Monster suggests he’s not ready to fully command a two-hour movie. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubVikram MurthiMay 7, 2021
There’s plenty of complexity to be mined from a scenario in which perception carries more weight than the truth, but director Anthony Mandler, a music video and commercial veteran making his feature debut, takes a broad-strokes approach to Steve’s plight. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldMay 6, 2021
Based upon a 1999 young-adult novel by Walter Dean Myers, Monster conveys the ache for all that its protagonist could lose, but it can’t escape the dramatic ruts of its own creation. Read full review
42
The Film StageErik NielsenMay 13, 2021
In telling the story of the after-school life of a young, Black, and talented creative living in Harlem attempting to find his vision, the film feels like a missed opportunity to shine a light on lives scarcely seen in cinema. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMay 7, 2021
Buried somewhere deep inside this phony, flashy movie there are thoughtful questions of racial identity, ingrained social perceptions, environmental conditioning and codes of masculinity. . . . But any thematic coherence is sacrificed to stylistic showboating that keeps taking us out of the story. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireMay 7, 2021
Despite the slick variety of shadings and textures Mandler employs to bring the story to life, the ending feels anticlimactic, like the tidy wrap-up at the conclusion of a TV procedural. Read full review
30
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiMay 25, 2021
It's underdeveloped and underwhelming, with clunky pacing and choppy scene transitions. What could've been a thoughtful, engrossing story unfortunately fails in every way imaginable. Read full review
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