  little monsters review from sundance  little monsters review from sundance test user sun 2032019 623 film review in a festival full of artistically layered and creatively structured films abe forsythe s little monsters stands out by telling a classic threeact narrative with predictable beats that lead to an ending we ve all seen before usually that would not be a compliment in my book however this film executes it s save the cat style story to perfection it gives the audience everything they want in a film it is chockfull of humor that has the crowd boisterous throughout mixed with gruesome violence love and despair it does not try to torture your soul instead it aims to please and entertain which it does quite well the story follows dave played by alexander england a hapless stoner recently dumped by his neurotic girlfriend because of his refusal to give up the past and his fear of having a child the man is addicted to video games and pornography with absolutely no direction until he meets miss caroline played by lupita nyong o while dropping off his nephew at kindergarten in a vain attempt to attain her attention he volunteers to chaperone a field trip where chaos ensues when zombies yes zombies invade their excursion nyong o of course delivers a showstopping performance it s hard to tell this was her first attempt at comedy the film puts her wit on full display as she holds her own amongst seasoned comedians she utilizes her awardwinning acting skills to carry a narrative on her back that could easily be a joke at a festival like sundance she controls the energy of every scene and does something not many females do in this genre she keeps the men in check lupita is surrounded by outrageously hilarious comedians alexander england s ability to morph into a total dunce allows the audience to laugh at what they ought not to be meanwhile josh gad plays a disturbingly illwilled children s television character that rapidly fires off improvised insult after insult in the direction of anyone in the same frame as him the comedic chemistry between gad and england is electric they have a plethora of gutbusting scenes together which energy gets balanced out by nyong o s hardnosed straight man performance in the q a nyong o spoke on how truly hard it was to play the straight man during the most outrageous scenes i can only imagine how difficult it was given how no one in the audience managed to hold a straight face for longer than a beat leaving the venue had unparalleled energy there is something about a wellexecuted threeact structure that really appeals to mass audiences in film school they drill this approach into filmmakers to the point that the more artistically inclined seem to really want to escape the form you can really see this effect in most of the sundance films a lot of the filmmakers actively try to disguise their structure in a way that feels more authentic or artistic this film however fully embraces the classical form it does so quite successfully it has everything you would expect from a mainstream box office film it has violence a get the girl throughline a wellplaced call to action a clear second act turning point and a convenient conclusion it does so not in a way that feels stale but in a way that somehow still feels refreshing this ultimately comes down to the filmmaker s decision to hand over the keys to lupita nyong o and the enduringness of the children s innocence the best factor of the entire film is the irony built around children s innocence too often do we want to shelter children from the brutal truth of the world in the face of flesheating zombies miss caroline protects the children s innocence by playing them their favorite taylor swift song on her ukulele she tells them they are simply in a fun game and that the invasion is all part of the planned field trip the question arises of how healthy it truly is to keep children away from the brutal realities of the world the theme of the film really came to light in the q a when josh gad gave the audience a powerful closing statement he said that too often do we treat ourselves like children hiding from the monsters that live in our society he brought up his close friend jussie smollett who had been viciously attacked by racist maga supporters earlier that day he reminded the audience that we cannot hide when incidences like his happen we must face our fears and openly talk about the monsters that live in our world or they will never be conquered eventually that is what the characters had to do face their fears in order to escape the grasp of evil festival tag sundance film festival 