Film

Monos

A Colombian film about armed child soldiers guarding a hostage and a cow on an isolated mountaintop. Visually precise and deeply strange, it moves between dark comedy and genuine dread. The children feel real—feral, bored, competitive, fragile—and the film never sentimentalizes them or their situation. For viewers ready for something uncommon and disquieting.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you're drawn to films that build dread through atmosphere and fraying loyalty, where a jungle's beauty keeps unsettling the bravado of its young fighters, and open questions don't bother you.

Skip it if you need a clear plot or characters to settle into, since this is loose and sensory, the mood doing most of the work with little explained.

What it asks of you: Full attention across a lean 103 minutes, with long quiet stretches and a restless camera that rewards patience more than tracking a storyline.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Beasts of No Nation2015

Another hard look at child soldiers, but through a single perspective. Idris Elba's performance and the film's unflinching empathy show you what recruitment and indoctrination actually costs.

But Bleak in ways that feel relentless. The cinematography is beautiful, which makes the content harder to process, not easier.

Beasts of No Nation poster

Come and See1985

A Soviet masterpiece about a boy conscripted into WWII. Like Monos, it refuses to look away from how violence transforms children. Hypnotic and horrible.

But Genuinely one of the most disturbing films ever made. The final scene will stay with you whether you want it to or not.

Come and See poster

The Killing of a Sacred Deer2017

Yorgos Lanthimos finds terror in precise ritual and group psychology. The way power shifts between characters mirrors Monos' claustrophobic dynamics perfectly.

But Deliberately artificial and cold. If you want emotional catharsis, this isn't it. The tone can feel arch.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Monos

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Milk of Sorrow2009

Both are Latin American films that treat violence and children as visual and symbolic rather than sensational—they observe from an angle rather than explain.

Peruvian magical realism about intergenerational trauma from Fujimori's regime. It has the same eerie visual precision as Monos and the same interest in how children inherit violence without understanding it.

But In Spanish and Quechua with subtitles. Dreamlike to the point of obscurity—if you want narrative clarity, you're watching the wrong film.

The Milk of Sorrow poster
More like this (7)

Waves2019

A different kind of confined pressure cooker—family instead of cell, but the same suffocating group dynamics and the cost of trying to maintain control.

But Three hours long. The colour grading and music can feel overwhelming. Some find it emotionally manipulative.

Waves poster

Under the Skin2014

Scarlett Johansson as an alien cataloguing humans. Like Monos, it observes behaviour from an unsettling angle, with minimal dialogue and maximum visual strangeness.

But A mood film disguised as sci-fi. Almost nothing happens by conventional standards. Hypnotic to some, tedious to others.

Under the Skin poster

Winter Light1963

Bergman's study of a small group under psychological pressure in an isolated space. Austere, glacial, about how people crack when trapped together.

But Glacial pacing. Black and white. Bergman's pessimism about human connection can feel punishing rather than revelatory.

Winter Light poster

The Florida Project2017

Children living on the margins, unsupervised and improvising. It finds both darkly funny moments and genuine pathos in the same spaces, exactly like Monos.

But Slower than you might expect. The documentary-style observation means plot serves character, not the other way around.

The Florida Project poster

Bully2011

Klebold and Harris's high school through multiple overlapping perspectives. Like Monos, it refuses to simplify group dynamics or find easy villains.

But Polarizing about its own subject matter. Some find it exploitative; others think it's the only honest version. Heavy.

Bully poster

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

A mother tries to understand her son's violence by examining their relationship in fragments. Fractured, precise, about how people become capable of harm.

But Blames and absolves nothing. If you want closure or moral clarity, you won't find it. Tilda Swinton's numbness isn't for everyone.

We Need to Talk About Kevin poster

The Double Life of Véronique1991

Both films are less interested in what happens than in how group dynamics and psychological pressure reshape the people inside them. The story is the pressure.

Kieslowski's meditation on identity, control, and the fragility of connection. Visually baroque where Monos is stark, but equally precise. It's about how people become themselves in relation to others.

But Deliberately elliptical. If you need plot to anchor you, this will feel like watching someone else's dream.

The Double Life of Véronique poster

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Beasts of No Nation