Monolith (2022 film)
The Interviewer's mental health declines as the story proceeds, and after she comes to the startling realisation that she herself is involved in the backstory of one of the bricks, the final scenes leave their interpretation open to the audience.Todd Brown, head of international acquisitions at XYZ, said of director Matt Veseley, "We haven't been more excited about a filmmaker since we first came across Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson with their debut feature Resolution" (released 2013).[29][35][36][37] After its screening at the Adelaide Film Festival, Rachael Mead of InDaily wrote: "Sullivan is superb as the ethically dubious journalist", and "Beneath the thrilling claustrophobia lies a cunning puncturing of privilege and a clear-eyed critique of the way we construct, manipulate and ultimately consume 'truth' in a globalised world".[48] On the eve of its US cinema release, New York Times reviewer Calum Marsh wrote, "The film is most effective when at its most granular, as Sullivan’s character carefully splices snippets of audio recordings and pores over research materials, scenes strongly reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up and Brian De Palma's Blow Out".[49] After its release, Guardian reviewer Phil Hoad gave the film four out of five, mentioning its references to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Denis Villeneuve's 2016 sci-fi drama Arrival and calling it an "impressive debut".[50] Australian critic Andrew F Peirce praised the film and Sullivan's performance, and wrote "It's clear that Matt Vesely and Lucy Campbell are eager champions of genre-filmmaking in Australia, with a confident debut feature that utilises limited resources to create a story that's expansive and genuinely otherworldly".The writer considers that "the strange solitude of interpersonal communication in the global information economy underpins the whole thing", and describes it as "a decidedly low-key film, but this should not be mistaken for dull.The site consensus reads "Carried by Lily Sullivan's outstanding lead performance and enriched by an expertly administered sense of creeping claustrophobia, Monolith is an eerie thriller that burns slow and lingers".[61] Monolith was nominated in the Best Indie Film category in the 2024 AACTA Awards, along with Ivan Sen's Limbo, Rolf de Heer's The Survival of Kindness, Mark Leonard Winter's The Rooster, A Savage Christmas, and Streets of Colour.