Monster's Ball (2001) Movie | Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry & Heath Ledger | Fact & Review

[Music] e e e e e e e e Hello friends how are you guys friends this is not a movie this is a full detail review and fact video about this movie if you want to know about this movie then you must like this video because in today's video we will tell you what is its story which actors and actresses have worked in this film the director producer cameraman of this film is going to talk about them in detail we will talk about the post-production pre-production budget and filming of this film The starcast of the film will also give details about The Supporting Cast and production guys if you want to know about this movie you must watch this video you will find all the details of this movie in this video what is the story of this movie if you like this video then share it with your friends and subscribe our Channel monsters ball is a 2001 American romantic drama film directed by Mark Forster produced by Lee Daniels and written by Milo adeka and W Ros who also appeared in the film it stars Billy Bob Thornton Heath Ledger halberry and Peter Bole with sha combes M de and kangi Calhoun in supporting roles Thornton portrays a corrections officer who begins a relationship with a woman bu unaware that she is the Widow of a man Combs he assisted in executing two principal photography began in May 2001 in New Orleans Louisiana and lasted for 5 weeks three monsters ball premiered at a fif Fest on November 11th 2001 and was theatrically released in the United States on February 8th 2002 by Lion's gate films the film received positive reviews with critical Acclaim directed at Barry's ledgers and Thornton's performances forer's Direction and Atta and Roo's screenplay it was also a significant Commercial Success grossing $45 million worldwide on a production budget of $4 million the film received numerous accolades and nominations and was nominated twice at the 74th Academy Awards for Best Actress Barry and original screenplay Atta and Ros with Barry winning for her performance becoming the first African-American woman to win the award film plot Hank groski a widower and his son Sunny are correction officers in a Georgia 7 prison they reside with Hank's father buck and ailing bigoted retired correction officer whose wife died by Suicide when Willie and Daryl Cooper friends of sunnes who are Black come by the house Hank frightens them off with a shotgun at the behest of buck Hank the prison's Deputy Warden is to oversee the execution of convicted murderer Lawrence Musgrove Musgrove is visited by his wife Leticia and Son Tyrell before his execution while at home overwhelmed by her husband's impending death as well as numerous personal and financial difficulties Leticia lashes out at her son for his obesity resorting to physical and emot abuse the night before the execution Hank tells Sunny that a Monster's Ball is held by the correction officers a GTO of those who will participate in the execution while Musgrove waits to be taken he draws a sketch of sunny and Hank the proceedings prove too much for sunny who is he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair vomits and then collapses following the execution Hank confronts sunny in the prison's bathroom and assaults him for ruining musgrove's last walk the next morning Hank attacks sunny in his bed and orders him to leave leave the house Sunny grabs a revolver from under his pillow and holds his father at gunpoint the confrontation ends in their living room with sunny asking his father if he hates him after Hank confirms that he does and always has Sunny takes his own life by shooting himself in the chest a shocked ashamed and devastated Hank buries sunny in the back Garden he subsequently resigns as Deputy Warden burns his uniform in the backyard and locks the door of Sunny's room he later purchases a local gas station in an attempt to provide a distraction in his retirement the Coopers offer condolences to Hank which he accepts one Rainy Night Hank is driving and sees Tyrell lying on the ground by the side of the road with Leticia calling for help after some hesitation Hank stops on being told tyell was struck by a car he drives them to a hospital where Tyrell dies from his injuries at the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital Hank drives Leticia home a few days later Hank gives Leticia a ride home from the diner where she works they begin talking in the car about their common losses and she invites him in Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's Widow though he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution they drown their grief with alcohol and have sex eight Hank eventually offers to give Leticia Sunny's truck it having been fixed up by the Coopers and their father Iris she finally accepts after initial discomfort Leticia stops by Hank's home with a present for him where she meets Buck who insults her and implies that Hank is only involved with her because he enjoys sex with black black women Leticia offended by the remarks refuses to interact with Hank after Hank is made aware of Buck's actions he finally stands up to his father and commits him to a nursing home he then renames the gas station Latias and when asked he replies that it is his girlfriend's name Leticia is evicted from her home and Hank invites her to move in with him while he is out she discovers Lawrence's drawings of sunny and Hank discovering Hank's involvement in her husband's death she is horrified at first by the Revelation but numbed by her suffering and realizing the execution was obviously legal since Lawrence likely committed murder she stays the film ends with the two of them eating ice cream together on the back porch as Hank states that he thinks they'll be okay cast Billy Bob Thornton as Hank groski halberry as Laticia Musgrove Heath Ledger as Sunny groski Peter Bole as buck groski kji calhon as Tyrell musgrow Shan comes as Lawrence musgrow m de as ryus Cooper Kieran McDade as Max dillian Charles Cen Jr as Willie Cooper Taylor lag range as Daryl Cooper production development the basis for this film came from the desire of actor sternard Riders ateka and Ros to make a script that would interest a big star alongside themselves with Harvey cadal in mind since he liked the latter's writing when offered one of their scripts three they were inspired by their troubled relationships with their fathers as a starting point that eventually led to a generation ational tale about executioners which eventually led to the inspiration for the title an old term for the last meal of a condemned man and a ball that took place with his jailers the night before nine they wrote the script over a period of 8 months over the course of 1995 that eventually inspired a bit of Interest through a producer of a film Ros had acted in 10 years of development occurred due to interest from filmmakers ranging from Robert dairo to Oliver Stone along with Studios that wanted a lighter ending but the transition to Lee Daniels and lioncap led to interest back to the original ending nine the film was produced by lion gate and Lee Daniels entertainment the first production for the latter before halberry was cast as Leticia Angela Basset and Vanessa Williams were First cast but both of them declined Wes Bentley turned down the part of Sunny which eventually went to Heath Ledger 13 filming principal photography began in May 2001 in New Orleans Louisiana and lasted for 5 weeks three a week before production sha comes auditioned for for the role of Lawrence Musgrove and won it at one point the production moved to the field cell blocks and deaf houses of Louisiana State Penitentiary for a week to shoot prison interiors and exteriors with some scenes shot in actual death Chambers three reception review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 142 reviews were positive giving the film a score of 85% with an average rating of 7.34 one0 the site's critical consensus State Sumer and thought provoking monsters ball has great performances all around 14 on Metacritic the film received a 69 out of 10.15 Roger ibert gave the film four stars and rated it as the best film of 2001 stating that it has the complexity of great fiction 16 Ebert also praised the performances of Barry and Thornton saying Thornton and Barry Star as Hank and Leticia in two performances that are so powerful because they observe the specific Natures of these two characters and avoid the pitfalls of racial cliches what a shock to find these two characters freed from the conventions of political correctness and allowed to be who they are weak flawed needful with good Hearts tested by lifetimes of compromise of the screenplay Ebert wrote the screenplay by adeka and roko is subtle and observant one is reminded of short fiction by Andre dubis William Trevor udor a Welty Raymond Carver it specifically does not tell their story but focuses on two separate lives the characters are given equal weight and have individual story arcs which do not intersect but simply inevitably meet 16 however in the African-American Community many felt that Barry's character was very offensive because it played on the racist Trope that black women subconsciously desire white men over black men and if given the right circumstances they would pursue one also many in the community felt that there were other performances by African-American actresses in the past that were far more powerful and therefore more deserving of the best actress's award than Barry who played an African-American Widow Who falls in love with her deceased husband's execution Ben folk of bbc.com spoke highly of Barry and Thornton's performances writing this is by far Barry's best performance and thoron reminds us that there are few if any leading men who can convey sadness and hope almost simultaneously in just one minimal glance 17 film review monsters ball is about a black woman and a white man who find for a time anyway solace in each other for their pain but their pain remains separate and so do they this is not a message movie about interracial relationships but the specific story of two desperate people whose lives are shaken by violent deaths and how in the days right after that they turn to each other because there is no place else to turn the movie has the complexity of great fiction and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are M especially at the end when the movie avoids an obligatory scene that would have been conventional and forces us to cut straight to the point Billy Bob Thornton and halberry Star as Hank and letia in two performances that are so powerful because they observe the specific Natures of these two two characters and avoid the pitfalls of racial cliches what a shock to find these two characters freed from the conventions of political correctness and allowed to be who they are weak flawed needful with good Hearts tested by lifetimes of compromise they live in a Georgia town Circa 1990 Laticia works the night shift in a diner has a fat little son and an exus been on death R Hank works as a guard on death row has a mean racist father and a browbeaten son and will be involved in laticious exus men's execution monsters ball is an Old English term for a condemned Man's last night on Earth at first Hank and Leticia do not realize the connection they have Through The Condemned man for another movie that would be enough plot we can imagine the scenes of Discovery and Revelation how this movie handles that disclosure is one of its great strengths how both characters deal with it or don't deal with it internally so that the movie blessedly proceeds according to exactly who they are what they need what they must do and the choices open to them the screenplay by Milo Atta Ando subtle an observant one is reminded of short fiction by Andre dubis William Trevor UDA a Welty Raymond Carver it specifically does not tell their story but focuses on two separate lives the characters are given equal weight and have individual story arcs which do not intersect but simply inevitably meet there is an overlay of racism in the story Hank's father Buck Peter Bole is a hateful racist and Hank mirrors his attitudes but the movie is not about Redemption not about how Hank overcomes his attitudes but about how they fall away from from him like a dead skin because his other feelings are so much more urgent the movie then is not about overcoming Prejudice but sidest stepping it because it comes to seem monstrously irrelevant Hank is an abused son and an abusive father his old man Buck confined to a wheelchair and a stroller still exercises an iron will over the family all three generations live under his roof and when Hank son Sunny Heath Ledger opts out of the family sickness bucks judgment is cruel he was weak we do not learn much about latisha's parents but she is a bad mother alternately smothering her son tyell coronji Calhoun with love and screaming at him that he's a fat little piggy she drinks too much has been served with an eviction notice sees herself as a loser she has no affection at all for tyrell's father Lawrence Shan combms on death row and makes it clear during a visitation that she is there strictly for her son there is no Side Story to paint Lawrence as a victim im a bad man he tells tyell you're the best of me Leticia is all messed up she sustains a loss that derails her and it happens by coincidence that Hank is there when he can perform a service this makes them visible to each other it is safe to say that no one else in the community is visible in terms of human need to either one Hank's shy slow courtship is so tentative it's like he's sleepwalking toward her her response is dictated by the fact that she has nowhere else to turn they have a key conversation in which the bodies of both characters are tilted away from each other as if fearful of being any closer and notice another conversation when she's been drinking and she she waves her hands and one hand keeps falling on Hank's lap she doesn't seem to notice and here is the point he doesn't seem willing to their intimate scenes are ordinary and simple a contrast to Hank's cold mercenary arrangement with a local hooker the film's only floor is the way Mark forer allows his camera to linger on Barry's half clothed Beauty this story is not about sex appeal and if the camera sees her that way we are pretty sure that Hank doesn't what he sees what she sees is defined not by desire but by need St students of screenwriting should study the way the film handles the crucial Passages at the end when she discovers some drawings and understands their meaning here is where a lesser movie would have supplied an obligatory confrontation Leticia never mentions the drawings to Hank why not because it is time to move on because she understands why he withheld information because she has no alternative because she senses that the drawings would not exist if the artist hated his subject because she is too tired and this is just one more nail on the cross because she forgives what the movie cannot say the characters have disappeared into the mysteries of the heart monsters ball demonstrates that to explain all its Mysteries a movie would have to limit itself to Mysteries that can be explained as for myself as Leticia rejoined Hank in the last shot of the movie I was thinking about her as deeply and urgently as about any movie character I can remember capital punishment has been on Hollywood's mind since its earliest days in DW Griffith's 1916 epic intolerance the first true truly Great American movie there are four episodes centering On inhumanity Through the Ages the historical sections focus on the destruction of Prince Bel shar's regime in Babylon the crucifixion of Christ and the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in the Contemporary episode set in an American city a labor activist is framed for murder and rescued from The Gallows at the very last moment by his devoted wife more recently weave had a spade of pictures that reflect the blight upon the land brought about by capital punishment that cruel and unusual form of retro ution visited almost entirely on Lower Class mostly black murderers and exploited for political advancement by both Bill Clinton and George W Bush when State Governors the forest known examples are set in the South and have titles that stem from the euphemistic language employed by Waters working on death roow Dead Man Walking The Last Dance The Green Mile and now monsters ball the title were told is an Old English term for a party thrown in jail for a condemned man before he's executed the man awaiting the chair in Mark forester's film is Lawrence Musgrove an African-American who's been on death row in a Georgia Penitentiary for 11 years though the nature of his crime is never revealed he's played by the rap artist and founder of Bad Boy Records sha Puff Daddy combms who knows a few things about death from Musgrove situation spring two narrative strands that run parallel for half of the movie before Fe can joined the first involves his wife Leticia halberry a waitress and their overweight 13-year-old son tyell who has only known his father as a condemned man the concerns the low middle class groski family three generations of correction officers with the Georgia Penitentiary service Buck Peter Bole a brutal racist crippled by arthritis and EMP fisma his son Hank Billy Bob Thornton a taciturn dedicated senior prison officer and Hank's son Sunny Heath Ledger an inexperienced Young Water Hank is in charge of musgrove's execution and turns violently on sunny when he lets the side down by vomiting while escorting The Condemned man to the chair meanwhile the chains smoking Laticia thumps her obese son when she discovers he's been gorging on chocolate one suspects that God must have given job a little respit in order to throw a few thunderbolts at this miserable Georgian Township and especially at these two families the wives of both buck and Hank have committed suicide and in a sudden shocking scene the humiliated Sunny kills himself in front of his contemptuous father and grandfather shortly thereafter Hank leaves the prison service and buys a filling station as if it weren't enough for leticia's husband to go to the electric chair her car packs and her home is repossessed by BFFs and her son is killed by a hid and drun Driver these sad stunted lives bring to mind Philip lens this be the verse Man Hands On misery to man it deepens like a coastal shelf get out as early as you can and don't have any kids yourself but this film has a message of Hope for Hank meets Leticia after the hitandrun accident and drives her dying son to the hospital they are the Orphans of the Storm meeting quite literally during a torrential downpour and the film poses a big question can they go beyond consoling each other in their ter terrible grief cross racial barriers and break out of the cycle of violence emotional deprivation and self-hatred that determines their lives the developing Affair between Hank and Leticia is given the Ring Of Truth by its generally unsentimental handling their first bout of Love Making begins tentatively as they get a little drunk it's an extended sweaty business initially awkward but increasingly tender and quite different from the soft focused slow fadeout treatment one customarily finds in Hollywood Productions there is some clumsiness in the film especially with a plot turning on people's ignorance of matters they might have picked up from a local newspaper or town gossip but there's nothing wrong with the performances boil and astonishing presence with that enormous marmal head and piggy eyes is powerful as always Billy Bob Thornton since his emergence as screenwriter and co-star of one false move a decade ago has established himself as one of the best actors in American Cinema as well as a gifted director and writer Hal Berry demonstrates an impressive range of emotions in the best roles she's had to date and there are several scenes in Monsters ball that are as memorable as her performance on Oscar Knight when she justly received a Best Actress award for this picture as I open this review and glance at the news I see a divided America choosing between two very different candidates for the S presidency in 2020 while elsewhere yet another black American has been shot by police officers one can only despair race relations are complex and brutal in the S despite the civil rights movement that gared headlines across the globe in the 1960s that is not to say the S is alone in the UK I look around at a country that has changed dramatically in just a few years torn apart by brexit with intolerance towards people from overseas seemingly growing worse by the day only a few days ago I read of some British people being delighted that refugees had drowned trying to find Sanctuary here personally I have never understood racism or xenophobia so to hear of it becoming so prevalent in the UK is horrifying but ours is not a proud history when you look back at the so-called glorious British Empire in mark forer's 2001 film monsters ball we explore a multitude of relationships between lovers families classes and across a community with love and hate being a regular occurrence monsters ball initially looks at three generations of men who have all worked as correctional officers at a prison in Georgia Buck Peter Bole is retired and now ailing but racial Prejudice still runs strongly in his veins Buck's son Hank Billy Bob Thornton is Deputy Warden at the prison and now the man of the house inheriting much of his father's racial hatred and not averse to threatening two local boys with a shotgun for being too close to his home Hank's son Sunny Heath Ledger also works at the prison but is considered Weak by his father and grandfather not sharing their aversion to black people and being very much a symbol of how attitudes did change in the S over time this is a man's world there are no women here Hank is a widow while his mother committed suicide with buck expressing no grief for her loss contact with women is at a nearby Diner or through momentary sing of lust with a local prostitute don't mess with this male hegemony the film's drama unfolds when Hank and sunny are charged with overseeing the execution of Lawrence Musgrove sha comes a convicted murderer in the aftermath of musgrove's death Hank's world is turned upside down when he connects with a woman named Leticia halberry and her son Tyrell kangi Calhoun despite his inbred Prejudice Hank becomes drawn to Leticia not realizing that she is now the Widow of Lawrence Musgrove monsters ball is a carefully paced film and requires attention and patience there are moments of contemplation where the characters are silent lost in their thoughts as they assess the world around them each one fragile in their own way though some hide it better than others while racial division is obvious here we also have class divide as well Hank and his family seem comfortable while Laticia is facing the stress of eviction her husband's upcoming execution not to mention her son being obese and partial to hiding candy bars around the home ultimately it is through mutual tragedies that Hank and latisha's worlds become come entwined and an unlikely connection between them begins this isn't a love at first sight story nor is it one with the man bringing the woman flowers and sunshine to light up her Dark World the story is often raw and gritty the characters trying to eek happiness out of grief and sorrow which is never an easy task one of the few things I knew about this film prior to watching it was that there isn't much talked about sex scene it is graphic but not there just for the sake of it unlike many films it represents an outpouring of P up emotion and felt completely apt for the storyline the acting here is solid with Hal Berry excelling and winning an Oscar for her performance unfortunately at the time of writing she Remains the only woman of color to have ever received the best actress award very hard to believe Billy Bob Thornton is also good here with Hank Bridging the Gap between his father and son having much of Buck's hatred but buried beneath the exterior is the compassion to be found in Sunny where the film suffers is not all the narratives running throughout feeling properly tied up by the conclusion we are given resolutions of sorts but still left wondering about many things by the time the final credits roll if you want fast-paced and eventful then this may not be for you but if you have the patience there is still a good film to be found here and the acting is first R Hank groski Billy Bob Thornton is like his father and his son a Georgia corrections officer Leticia Musgrove halberry is a waitress struggling to make ends meet and to raise her 12-year-old son she is also the Widow of a man his execution Hank helped to conduct the relationship between Hank and Leticia a relationship born of chance moral reflex and desperate need is at the center of monsters ball a tough heartfelt new film from The Young Swiss born director Mark Forster in outline the story of Hank and latisha's intwined lives might seem implausible and the events that surrounded three deaths including the unblinkingly filmed electrocution of latisha's husband Lawrence sha comes could have smothered the movie in melodrama monsters ball could easily have been an ex exercise in Liberal high-mindedness a cinematic lecture on the inhumanity of the death penalty or the legacy of Southern racism but Mr forer and the screenwriters Milo adeka and will Ros who is a native of Georgia are more interested in the details of character and meu than inducing right thinking morals Hank and latia are not easy people and much to its credit monsters ball is not an easy picture Mr forester's deliberate pacing and the gritty smudge look that robertto sheifer the cinematographer brings to the work of a modern South create an atmosphere heavy with the buried emotions of grief rage and Terror Hank lives in the shadow of his bullying bigoted Father Peter Bole and a brutal code of masculine behavior that blocks all access to feeling but if Hank feels at all sorry for himself he does not show us and Mr Thornton earns our sympathy the hard way by showing us Hank at his unvarnished worst you've always hated me haven't you demands his son Sunny Heath Ledger a sensitive troubled soul who is clearly not cut out for death row Duty yes I have is Hanks eventon repli the night before Sunny had incurred his father's wrath by showing intolerable weakness during musgrove's walk to the electric chair as one of his African-American colleagues tried to pull him off his son Hank exploded in an obscene racist Tade this is not you Hank his coworker insisted trying to calm him down this is me Hank yells back this is me he's right Hank's Prejudice and suspicion are not simply mistaken attitudes in need of Correction they are integral to his character but so is a habitual cures y the writers catch the quiet politeness that inflects even the most tense or hostile exchanges and a reluctant sense of decency these qualities overtake the others in a way that surprises Hank himself and his transformation in Hollywood as in the Baptist Church they like to call it Redemption is all the more astonishing for being almost surreptitious Mr Thornton one of the most gifted Screen Actors working today outd does himself for her part Miss Barry proves herself to be an actress of impressive courage and insight like Hank Leticia is a character who could have been simplified turned into a one-dimensional victim or a saint Miss Barry emphasizes the character's temper and also the vulnerability beneath her toughness what she has in common with Hank is an alienation from her finer emotions she loves her son Tyrell well played by 10-year-old coronji Calhoun in his first film role but he is also the target of her anger and shame in the last minutes of the movie the burden of dramatic resolution Falls squarely on Miss Barry and she SES the film's conclusion is an enormous gamble for the filmmakers as well as for Leticia and Hank and it is above all Miss Barry's Fearless concentration that converts potential sentimentality into honest complex emotion the characters and the bond that develops between them are too complex for words and the writers use very few their economy and the eloquence of Mr forer's unshowy beautiful images give monsters ball the density and strangeness of real life the raw intimacy of some of the scenes whether they take place at a diner in the death house or in the bedroom is breathtaking in the end the movie belongs to the actors to miss Barry and Mr Thornton principally but also to the large Supporting Cast including Mr comes Mr Ledger and the Hip-Hop star M de as Hank's neighbor down the road this is one of those rare movies in which even people glimpsed only for a moment or two seem to have lives that ramify beyond the screen as if the story were being witnessed rather than dramatized a powerful complex emotionally charged human interest drama about change suddenly happening to a real person not a Hollywood cook I cut a as he has to face his inward racist demons in a part of the country where racial attitudes are changing but Prejudice is still apparently deepr rooted the film makes the white big it out to be a regular guy whose racism is a natural part of his makeup someone we have all probably met and not some obvious monster we can't relate to he will help out a black woman in trouble and an unlikely relationship will develop between them as they provocatively confront the same fears many in the country have about racial mixing it also shows how the two lovers struggle to get along to just survive and are so lost and lonely but they are capable when given the chance of seeking their own personal happiness over their set beliefs the 31-year-old Swiss born and muu film school graduate Mark forer everything put together directs a film about a racist who overcomes his hatred because of a family tragedy that makes him become more open-minded and thoughtful and brave as he finds that he needs to be with someone to make him feel good again in the hands of a wrong director this could have played like a liberal lesson in morals about the evils of racism and the death penalty Y and been merely a dactic exercise Instead This is a heartfelt and probative melodrama that has the white racist struggle in his own in articulate way to try to explain himself convincingly to the black woman he wants to be with that there's a decent side to him that can be brought out in the right circumstances the film wisely uses the emotional loss of both the white and black families against the lingering background of the South's resistance to change its old racist way of life to show that all sides have lost something dear to them therefore each character is forced to learn more about how they function in order to overcome their misery which makes this film so unique and inflammatory as a character study rather than an overview of racism in the film's ambiguous characterization of the two lovers it gambles in its conclusion that maybe since we have seen both their worst they have both been bad parents and best sides they are both capable of doing the right thing that may be Against All Odds their love affair based on need might work the film is set in a contemporary rural Georgia small town where Hank groski Billy Bob thoron and his only son Sunny Heath Ledger are currently Georgia Corrections Officers they are following in the footsteps of Sunny's retired correction officer dad The Bullying racist invalid with in fisma Buck Peter Bole the groski father and son are assigned death row Duty in the execution of a cop killer Hank supervises the prisoner's walk to the electric chair and of the strapping him into the chair while Sunny who is not psychologically fit to work in a prison is part of a team that carries this out the other story is about Leticia Musgrove howberry a pretty black waitress whose husband Lawrence sha puffy comes was lost to her when he was arrested 11 years ago and is now about to be executed she can't manage things on her own as his absence leaves her on the verge of losing her job and her house their 12-year-old son Tyrell kangi Calhoun he's 10 is a good kid but he disappoints her because he has no willpower to stop eating and is obese this causes her to hit him and be angry and ashamed of him but she still can't stop loving him the film depicts buck as a grouch filled with racial hatred who can't accept change while Hank is also an outspoken racist who is reconciled to living a miserable life Sunny is a more sensitive soul and is seen as being condemned by his family for being friendly with his black neighbor ryus Cooper M deaf rapper poet and his two boys his father tells him that he hates him and his grandfather says he's a weakling Hank's wife committed suicide and that has left him bitter and it has left Sunny without an ally to relieve all the racial intolerance he is Poisoned With while living in his grandfather's house it is only the routines in life that Hank is left with from all his grief and loss as he is just satisfied to go to the same Diner and every time order black coffee and chocolate ice cream he only eats with a white plastic spoon speaking of racial symbols on his job he is mostly concerned that he wants everything to go smoothly during Lawrence's execution but when Sunny messes up this becomes too much for Hank to handle and it leads to a chain of events that will alter Hank's life forever it takes a few chance encounters for Hank and Laticia to meet not aware that they have a connection through the execution but slowly they come to rely on one another to make them feel good again from all the misery they have recently been through and when they each learn I in their own way how they are connected they each must learn how to live with that the film makes no big deal about that openly but lets the viewer absorb what effects it has on them by wisely shunning a formula confrontational scene in favor of quiet scenes where each is seen absorbing that knowledge in their own quiet way it is through some really fine acting performances on the part of both actors that allows us to see them actually feel each other as they overcome the heavy-handed part of the melodrama the actors prevent any messages sent on racism from sinking the film with a phony ring to it both actors show courage in their roles and make their characters vibrant and unpredictable and filled with vulnerability passion and an inner toughness when new together and making love the scenes were dramatic and fitting for what they were searching for in each other this is an actor's film and these two actors make this Pi Sparkle with intelligence and insightfulness the title monsters ball comes from a custom in medieval England where prisoners awaiting execution were called Monsters the night before their execution their jailers would hold a feast known as a Monster's Ball as their final farewell the following info was included in my program notes the film was completed with a production budget of $2.5 million the top three stars Thornton Barry and Ledger deferred their upfront fees which would normally add up to around $15 million riters Atta and roko a native of Georgia Act by training both auditioned for and landed roles in Monsters ball their own film adaa plays a member of the death team and roko is the warden burning with AC quied intensity monsters ball is bolstered by a poetic intelligent sensibility not seen in an American Film since Terren Malik The Thin Red Line although sturdy and well wrought p is also a fragile creation that is best experienced with minimum Advanced knowledge of its unlikely sounding story Milo attas and woko script and Mark forer's Direction reinforce one another and though the theme of the burdens and faults of fathers visited upon sons and a Relentless feeling of tragedy will remind some of Paul sher's Affliction the ultimate notes of Hope Place pick in its own distinct Arena where adults May achieve renewed and well- earned sense of purpose strong critical support and bubbling Fascination about lead vesps Billy Bob Thornton and how Barry will help break through the twin barriers of an eccentric title and a demanding though never taxing Pace to G on a crossover odds for a resolutely Indie work of art there was little in the swis borne forer's second feature the chamber workor everything put together to indicate the creative leap repped by monsters ball Forster appears much more at home with the widescreen frame and its compositional and dramatic choices than he did with the previous films man at video Jazz he certainly indicates that he's now a director of the first order tone here suggests a strong kinship with the S scaling Tales of disappointment by Richard Ford Molly presenting three generations of the groski family in the opening minutes tale begins with Hank Thornton a death row guard at Georgia State Penitentiary distinctly defined by his habits which include eating ice cream with a plastic spoon and throwing up the day before he helps with executions his son simply known as Sunny Heath Ledger who also works as a death row guard Spends His nights visiting a local hooker Hank's dad Buck Peter Bole a retired prison guard is hooked up to an oxygen tank and religiously Clips news items about prisoners his racist spewing may have influenced Hank who in purest redneck style orders sons of his black neighbor ryus M death and Pals of Sunny off his property Hank explains to Sunny that condemned man Lawrence Musgrove sha com's execution will be what the guards call a Monster's Ball without a lawyer or preacher musgrove's wife Laticia Barry with her overweight candy addicted son Tyrell kangi Calhoun visit him for the last time after an 11-year vigil but W attend his electrocution which movie sophisticated skills of observation show is both more brutal than the injection scene in dead man walking and less hysterical than the zapping sequence in The Green Mile on Lawrence's last walk however Sunny vomits in full view of everyone setting Hank into a violent shamed rage from the 30-minute Mark of Lawrence's demise monsters ball becomes for the next 25 minutes a kind of Dance of Death that appears to have no end so totally devastating and in its staging shocking is the sense of lost lives that the movie feels like a Vortex of hopelessness these characters penned in by a deep Southern Culture still defined by animous and inadequacies that go even Beyond racism have nothing left but to Pummel each other thus latisha's beating of Tyrell for eating candy behind her back goes beyond A Mother's Rage towards some unexpressed self-hatred never has the sight of a boy eating a chocolate bar looked sadder nonethless a subtle change of seasons descends over the movie as Hank quits his guard job and extends a hand of help to Leticia which includes letting her seduce him in a scene of raw intimacy that forer's camera catches on the slide Hank sees Leticia as a means to a New Direction Leticia for her part holds much the drama of the second hour it's a measure of Thornton's extraordinarily subtle performance that the changes in Hank arrive in barely perceptible movements there's the sense one that only comes in the most exciting screen acting work of a thesp uncovering his character's layers in the moment it happens on camera after the light comedy of Bandits and the mannered minimalism of the man who wasn't their Thornton finds just the right balance with Hank a man a few words but ever expanding feeling whom the actor appears to have in his bones Barry's work feels no more propaned than Thornton's but her Leticia is a woman of abs and flows that are so different from Hanks that we wonder if they'll ever work as a couple Barry with forer's Keen encouragement allows Leticia to silently absorb Hank's giving nature and it seems to transform her as well be UT never in a way that announces itself as a moment of Revelation this proves crucial in pick's final minutes the closest pick comes to being blunt is with buck but boil talking through his wheezing adds a feeble surface to Buck's ugly inits that makes even this scumbag bag sympathetic Ledger perf is a short cold cruel portrait of a young man with no Center while wrap star Combs and presses by avoiding the slightest hint of melodrama even more impressive is Young newcomer calone whose inner struggles recall the poor young black kids of last year's George Washington working with regular lensa Roberto shifa forer explores every expressive possibility in the widescreen frame the characters especially Hank appear at points to be cornered at the edges while objects framed pictures clothing the wire hooked up to the electric chair take on giant proportions in closeups Tech and Design Elements never call attention to themselves while the look might be termed Southern humidity in a year of dreadful overcoring Ash and Spencer synth and guitar underscore is in perfect Moody tandem with the images monsters ball has already garnered two Oscar nominations including one for the lovely halberry for best actress and received numerous end of the year accolades is monsters ball the startling ruminations on Race that you're being told well yes and no said in the South Hank groski Billy Bob thoron and his son Sunny Heath Ledger are prison guards at the State Penitentiary and preparing for an execution the man to die is Lawrence Musgrove sha combes who will be leaving behind and young son and making a widow out of Laticia halberry the tension in the groski home escalates especially as Hank has chosen to care for his own ailing Father Peter Bole who still finds the time to spout out racist rhetoric through an oxygen mask one last confrontation leaves a permanent mark of emptiness on the family Leticia is struggling to just make ends meet and fight an impending eviction her car keeps breaking down on her she's been let go from her job as a waitress and she has to raise a son by herself all the while trying to encourage him to lose weight Leticia is breaking down and her world around her is crumbling one night Laticia gets into an accident walking home along the roadside and needs assistance badly the one who pulls the car aside to help is actually Hank as time goes by he helps Leticia however he in whether it's giving her a ride home from the diner or just staying with her so she won't be alone Hank and Leticia come together out of mutual need and grief there are two people entirely wrong for each other that Kindle a passion that seems to transcend race Laticia needs someone to take care of her after having a husband on death row and fighting to stay above the poverty line Hank needs someone to take care of out of a mixture of compounded loneliness and grief Thornton reprises the repressed protagonist of the man who wasn't there with his portrayal of Hank his lips are pursed looking a tad like Mr Limpet and he expresses more with a furrowed brow and stare than words could manage Thornton's performance is good and the audience does really end up rooting for Hank but the performance doesn't resonate possibly because of the writing for the character I guess one could say monsters ball is how Barry's legitimization as an actress Barry gives the performance of her career and has moments where she's on the verge of ripping your heart out monsters ball is not exactly the scorching portrait of race relations that that has been hyped to be it's really more of a story about two characters with race being underscored except for a convenient occasion where it can become the Catalyst to a fight the film also takes some of its metaphors rather simply the connection between Father and Son includes Hank and sunny using the same prostitute Hank eats every night in the same Diner and always orders a bowl of chocolate ice cream get it and black coffee get it all the B who over the explicit sex scene thank you so much news fluff is undeserving the sex scene is no different than a 100 scene before and many on Showtime during the late hours the scene serves its purpose thematically in the story for its characters but it really isn't hot and steamy as it's been dubbed to be Move Along folks besides the acting monsters ball has some other accomplishments up its sleeve the cinematography is gorgeous and uses lights and darks to an incredibly effective degree there are many scenes where you might be paying more attention to how the scene looks than the scene itself the music is also commendable for the simple task of not becoming intrusive and actually enhancing the story this is what scores are intended to do monsters ball may be the biggest suck and Aon comfortably movie to come out in a long time I found myself enacting this measure every time someone did something horrible said something racist or surprisingly died this may be because I have the entire theater to myself for my own Amusement monsters ball is certainly a well- written and well- acted film it's just not up to Snuff when it comes to best picture specul ation monsters ball was Lee Daniel's first movie as a producer in years before his first directing effort 2005 Shadow Boxer but it's clear as ever in 2021 that his influence is all over this movie the elements that would come to Define Daniel's later movies like Precious and the paper boy and the United States versus Billy Holiday are here and that's the awkward and sometimes jarring discordant elements of the serious and the Soapy of camp and sincerity the movies are also so unabashedly horny a Lee Daniel's movie is trying to say something sometimes poorly often too many things and too spread out and monsters ball is one of those statement movies or at least it was upon release it was a screenplay developed in the mid 1990s by actors Milo OA and Ros and while it attracted talented points it didn't really gain traction until Daniels came on board as its Shepherd you can see what would be so attractive to Daniels with this mixture of odd elements as its own eclectic Brew it's a romance that should not work it's life lessons about racism that seem heavy-handed it's a Thrust of a sex scene that goes on for four uncomfortable minutes I think there's a recognizable argument to be had that this romance doesn't quite work it's more out of necessity than connection but maybe that's even the point these are two wounded people finding solace in one another and maybe that's enough in a world of pain and uncertainty just finding someone who in latisha's words makes you feel good monsters ball isn't as wild and campy as other Daniels joints but you can see the DNA of his other movies the seeds of artistic flowers that would Bloom into his style it's got a bit more of an Arty Indie Sheen here but monsters ball might as well be Lee Daniels monsters ball as far as its key influence certainly more than director Mart forer rewatching this movie many years later it's clear to me that it is not a movie about race relations though this is an implicit subject as well but much more an examination on generational toxic masculinity this makes much more sense for me with the prominence given to Hank's Billy Bob Fon perspective over Laticia halberry it's about him learning to break free of his racial prejudices yes but that's more one sign of him learning to break free of the tyranny of his father's influence and his father Peter boil is an infirmed cartoon of toxic masculinity this is a man who brags about his wife dying and how many women he cheated on her with this is a man who calls his grandson Sunny Heath Ledger weak because he displayed empathy for an inmate on death row it's his close-minded harmful definition of what constitutes a real man that has become the lingering poison infecting the groski family it's not subtle in the slightest but monsters ball is effective in communicating cycles of abuse Hank carries many of his father's Tendencies and Views his own son with contempt for not being able to meet these same restrictive definitions of Manliness that his father imposed on him when his son needs him the most in his Cry for Help is where Hank fails him telling him he does in fact hate him and that's when he loses him forever the rest of the movie is tracing Hank's journey to Breaking Free from the vile influence of a decrepit old man to that end the story's structure of monsters ball works better in the span of 110 minutes Hank has to reflect on what the negative influences of his life are and to break free of them when he finally decides to put his father in a nursing home the lady in charge smiles and says You must love your father Hank is quick to reply no I don't but he's my father there is no love between these men because love was most likely viewed as weakness it's the last thing Sunny says before killing himself after his father says he hates him well I've always loved you when Leticia looks at a picture of Sunny something that Hank doesn't share until late in the film she remarks that Sunny doesn't look like Hank he replies that Sunny has his mother in him implying the things that made him better came from her this is a character Journey that literally culminates in a man performing oral sex on a woman as a sign of his personal growth taken by itself it sounds laughable but it mostly works in the context of the movie surely his father would view the giving of pleasure to another as a waste of energy and time so his desire to give rather than receive ends up being his character's defining push away from the negativity of his father my issue is that Leticia feels less like a fully fleshed out person and more like an infantilized victim she's a single mother struggling to keep her job keep her home and keep her son's weight in check her husband is on death row she's got a lot of opportunities to be given Dimension and insight however the movie never seems to deem her ready for that attention until the very very end literally the last scene of the movie beforehand she's more a stop to the development of others someone to gauge Hank's personal growth and someone to be inflicted with all manners of indignities and abuses when she interacts with Hank's father and he's as awful as you would expect her residual pain and outrage is the final straw for Hank who then moves the old man out her entire relationship with her son feels awkwardly handled fiction can illuminate the lives of complicated people people with flaws that don't always make the best decisions but her single-minded obsession with her son's weight and her subsequent beating of him feels like another chain of abuse but without the explanat otherwise it's just a woman in pain berating her son and then the boy has to die and it feels excessive I know that Hank and Leticia Bond over their Mutual grief over having lost a son but it feels like Leticia is more a mod for Hank's growth during their protracted sex scene her voice cracks and sounds uncomfortably childish at the end she asks Hank to take care of her because she needs it she comes across like an infantilized version of a woman who is there to cry and be pretty that's why the final moment of the movie rings so curious for me after Hank puts his father away what is the conflict here latia agrees to move in with Hank after being evicted and it all seems to be going well then while he's out retrieving his favorite ice cream she discovers that Hank has drawings by her late husband reshaping her understanding of Hank but what is that reshaping before he was a guy she served at a diner who happened to help her during the most trying time in her life does she think he was seeking her out to take advantage of her how she got the diner job because she lost her previous job and it's not like he sought her out but she might not be privy to any of that context it feels like an artificial conflict that's meant to boil over and possibly spell dun between these two can this butting relationship survive this Revelation but him still unclear what exactly the Revelation is he worked at the prison he was involved in the execution of her husband in a way walking him to the chair this seems artificially inflated to me and yet it is only hear that the movie gives her the final say allowing Barry to wordlessly process this new information and whether or not it dramatically changes anything between her and Hank she never comments to him about it you just have to study her face and it's here where the movie at long last treats Leticia with the courtesy of nuance monsters ball was made famous for two reasons the extended sex scene between Barry and Thornton and her Best Actress Oscar Victory the first ever for a woman of color and still the only one 20 years later let's start with Barry's performance which was definitely a leap above what she had been demonstrating with trashy Thrillers and lame comedies Barry is good here but the Lee Daniels of it all makes it feel like her performance is being pulled into less subtle more overtly soapy directions against her better judgments when she gets into a whiny space I kind of winced not because her character was undeserving of complaint but because the movie was shifting her into that infantilized victim box Barry is good here but after rewatching spax in the bedroom performance and Nicole Kidman's Mullen Rouge performance ID wrate her third of the chief 2001 best actress nominees Barry is an actress I had mixed feelings about early in my critical career 2004 as Catwoman did not help but I've come around to appreciate her more I greatly enjoyed her varied performances in 2012's Cloud Atlas she recently directed her first movie where she plays a middle-aged kickboxer and that sounds punishing and possibly eye openening I'm not the only one that seems to come back to the infamous sex seeing it constitutes almost all of the trivia about the film on MDB interesting not6 fact where Bentley was going to play Sunni but mysteriously dropped out he admitted to struggling with Heroin addiction later and the studio gave the production 48 hours to find a replacement and that's how Heath Ledger got it also I had to revise this paragraph several times to remove any phrases that might come across as unintended innuendos You could argue the sex scene is a turning point it happens at the halfway point of monsters ball and beforehand Laticia and Hank have expressed no romantic interest afterwards it becomes about their possible Odd Couple romance if that's what it can even be called the scene is played raw and desperate which is why it made me feel uncomfortable it wasn't because I was watching two actors pretend to physically go at it for an extended period it's because these characters were so sad and reaching out in desperation to feel anything fleeting the attention given to the scene just feels thematically wrong it's not offensively gross but it feels a little too prant a little too salacious for what the characters are going through through emotionally Thornton has even said in interviews that this movie might have contributed to his eventual divorce from Angelina Jolie which seems strange to me considering she was also filming steamy scenes with Antonio Banderas at about the same time 2001 as original sin director Mike forer has had an interesting career since helming this fam million dollar Indie he's done Oscar bait dramas Finding Neverland The Kite Runner and quirky Indie Stranger Than Fiction stay and big Hollywood action movies Quantum of soless World War Z he was hand selected by producer Brad Pit to direct World War Z Forster has no distinct visible style to him but effectively Alters to the genre and story he's directing in some ways this is what a director should be and yet forer has never gotten credit for his versatility nobody's going to say Quantum of Solace is their favorite Janes Bond movie or even the best of Daniel Craigs run but it's not really forer's fault that movie didn't work his last two movies were smaller dramas 2016 as all I see is you and 2018 has misguided Christopher Robin and he's attached to movies about the Holocaust A Down World War II pilot the formation of Greenpeace and Thomas the Tank Engine so the man's versatility continues to go undervalued this is my final re-review of the 2001 film slate and my original review I think mostly holds up I was thinking the same thing about lazy metaphors and lacking substantial racial commentary but I better appreciated the scope of the movie not on Race but on the effects of toxic masculinity I think I was more dazzled by the photography in 21 or 2002 when it was made available to us in central Ohio than in 2021 monsters ball is a clumsy but well-intentioned movie that has some pristine elements to it but I don't quite know if it ever coalesces into the important movie it desires it's an interesting artifact of Lee Daniels before he became an industry unto himself and with Barry showcasing just what she was capable of if given the right opportunity this began a run of pretty actress goes drab of Oscar winners 2002 as Nicole Kidman 2003's ized the and 2004's Hillary Swank and so the biggest lesson of monsters ball after all might have been providing a successful template for future actresses to follow a path to Oscar gold monsters ball is a 2001 American romantic drama film directed by Mark Forster produced by Lee Daniels and written by Milo adaka and W Ros who also appeared in the film it stars Billy Bob Thornton Heath Ledger halberry and Peter Bole with sha combes Mar de and kangi Calhoun in supporting roles thoron portrays a directions officer who begins a relationship with a woman Barry unaware that she is the Widow of a man Combs he assisted in executing two principal photography began in May 2001 in New Orleans Louisiana and lasted for 5 weeks three monsters ball premiered at a fif Fest on November 11th 2001 and was theatrically released in the United States on February 8th 2002 by Lion's gate films the film received positive reviews with critical Acclaim directed at Barry's ledgers and Thornton's performances forced Direction and Atta and Roo's screenplay it was also a significant Commercial Success grossing $45 million worldwide on a production budget of $4 million the film received numerous accolades and nominations and was nominated twice at the 74th Academy Awards for Best Actress Barry and original screenplay Atta and Ros with Barry winning for her performance becoming the first African-American woman to win the award film plot Hank groski a widower and his son Sunny are Correctional officers in a Georgia 7 prison they reside with Hank's father Buck an ailing bigoted retired correction officer whose wife died by Suicide when Willie and Daryl Cooper friends of sunnes who are Black come by the house Hank frightens them off with a shotgun at the behest of buck Hank the prison's Deputy Warden is to oversee the execution of convicted murderer Lawrence Musgrove Musgrove is visited by his wife Laticia and Son Tyrell before his execution while at home overwhelmed by her husband's impending death as well as numerous personal and financial difficulties Leticia lashes out at her son for his obesity resorting to physical and emotional abuse the night before the execution Hank tells Sunny that a Monster's Ball is held by the correction officers a ghetto of those who will participate in the execution while Musgrove waits to be taken he draws a sketch of sunny and Hank the proceedings prove too much for sunny who as he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair vomits and then collapses following the execution Hank confronts sunny in the prison's bathroom and assault inss him for ruining musgrove's last walk the next morning Hank attacks sunny in his bed and orders him to leave the house Sunny grabs a revolver from under his pillow and holds his father at gunpoint the confrontation ends in their living room with sunny asking his father if he hates him after Hank confirms that he does and always has Sunny takes his own life by shooting himself in the chest a shocked ashamed and devastated Hank buries sunny in the back Garden he subsequently resigns as Deputy Warden burns his uniform in the backyard and locks the door of Sunny's room he later purchases a local gas station in an attempt to provide a distraction in his retirement the Coopers offer condolences to Hank which he accepts one Rainy Night Hank is driving and sees Tyrell lying on the ground by the side of the road with Leticia calling for help after some hesitation Hank stops on being told Tyrell was struck by a car he drives them to a hospital where Tyrell dies from his injuries at the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital Hank drives Leticia home a few days later Hank gives Leticia a ride home from the diner where she works they begin talking in the car about their common losses and she invites him in Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's Widow though he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution they drown their grief with alcohol and have sex eight Hank eventually offers to give Leticia Sunny's truck head having been fixed up by the Coopers and their father RIS she finally accepts after initial discomfort Leticia stops by Hank's home with a present for him where she meets Buck who insults her and implies that Hank is only involved with her because he enjoys sex with black women Leticia offended by the remarks refuses to interact with Hank after Hank is made aware of Buck's actions he finally stands up to his father and commits him to a nursing home he then renames the gas station leticia's and when asked he replies that it is his girlfriend's name Leticia is evicted from her home and Hank invites her to move in with him while he is out she discovers Lawrence's drawings of sunny and Hank discovering Hank's involvement in her husband's death she is horrified at first by the Revelation but numbed by her suffering and realizing the execution was obviously legal since Lawrence likely committed murder she stays the film ends with the two of them eating ice cream together on the back porch as Hank states that he thinks they'll be okay cast Billy Bob Thornton as Hank groski howberry as Laticia Musgrove Heath Ledger as Sunny groski Peter Bole as buck groski kji Calhoun as Tyrell Musgrove Shan comes as Lawrence Musgrove Mos Def as ryus Cooper Kiran McDade as Max dillian Charles Cowen Jr as Willie Cooper Taylor lag range as Daryl Cooper production development the basis for this film came from the desire of actor sternard rers ateka and Ros to make a script that would interest a big star alongside themselves with Harvey cadal in mind since he liked the latter's writing when offered one of their Scripts three they were inspired by their troubled relationships with their fathers as a starting point that eventually led to a generational tale about executioners which eventually led to the inspiration for the title an old term for the last meal of a condemned man and a ball that took place with his jailers the night before nine they wrote the script over a period of 8 months over the course of 1995 that eventually inspired a bit of Interest through a producer of a film Ros had acted in 10 years of development occurred due to interest from filmmakers ranging from Robert dairo to Oliver Stone along with Studios that wanted a lighter ending but the transition to Lee Daniels and lioncap led to interest back to the original ending nine the film was produced by lion skate and Lee Daniels entertainment the first production for the latter before halberry was cast as Leticia Angela Basset and Vanessa Williams were First cast but both of them declined Wes Bentley turned down the part of Sunny which eventually went to Heath Ledger 13 filming principal photography began in May 2001 in nework Oran Louisiana and lasted for 5 weeks three a week before production sha comes auditioned for the role of Lawrence Musgrove and want it at one point the production moved to the field cell blocks and deaf houses of Louisiana State Penitentiary for a week to shoot prison interiors and exteriors with some scenes shot in actual death Chambers three reception review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 142 reviews were positive giving the film a score of 85% with an average rate rating of 7.34 one0 the site's critical consensus State summer and thought-provoking monsters ball has great performances all around 14 on Metacritic the film received a 69 out of 10.15 Roger ibert gave the film four stars and rated it as the best film of 2001 stating that it has the complexity of great fiction 16 Ebert also praised the performances of Barry and Thornton saying Thornton and Barry Star as Hank and Laticia in two performances that are so powerful because they observe the specific Natures of these two characters and avoid the pitfalls of racial cliches what a shock to find these two characters freed from the conventions of political correctness and allowed to be who they are weak flawed needful with good Hearts tested by lifetimes of compromise of the screenplay ebbert wrote the screenplay by Atta and roko is subtle an observant one is reminded of short fiction by Andre dubis William Trevor udor Welty Raymond Carver it specifically does not tell their story but focuses on two separate lives the characters are given equal weight and have individual story arcs which do not intersect but simply inevitably meet 16 however in the African-American Community many felt that Barry's character was very offensive because it played on the racist Trope that black women subconsciously desire white men over black men and if given the right circumstances they would pursue one also many in the community felt that there were other performances by African-American actresses in the past that were far more powerful and therefore more deserving of the best actors R's award than Barry who played an African-American Widow Who falls in love with her deceased husband's executioner Ben folk of bbc.com spoke highly of Barry and Thornton's performances writing this is by far Barry's besta performance and Thornton reminds us that there are few if any leading men who can convey sadness and hope almost simultaneously in just one minimal glance 17 film review monsters ball is about a black woman and a white man who find for a time anyway solace in each other for their pain but their pain remains separate and so do they this is not a message movie about interracial relationships but the specific story of two desperate people whose lives are shaken by violent deaths and how in the days right after that they turn to each other because there is no place else to turn the movie has the complexity of great fiction and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are mad especially at the end when the movie avoids an obligatory scene that would have been conventional and forces us to cut straight to the point Billy Bob Thornton and halberry Star as Hank and Leticia in two performances that are so powerful because they observe the specific Natures of these two characters and avoid the pitfalls of racial cliche is what a shock to find these two characters freed from the conventions of political correctness and allowed to be who they are weak flawed needful with good Hearts tested by lifetimes of compromise they live in a Georgia town Circa 1990 Laticia works the night shift in a diner has a fat little son and an exus been on death row Hank works as a guard on death row has a mean racist father and a browbeaten son and will be involved in latia exus men's execution monsters ball is an Old English term for a condemned Man's last nine on Earth at first Hank and Leticia do not realize the connection they have Through The Condemned man for another movie that would be enough plot we can imagine the scenes of Discovery and Revelation how this movie handles that disclosure is one of its great strengths how both characters deal with it or don't deal with it internally so that the movie blessedly proceeds according to exactly who they are what they need what they must do and the choic is open to them the screenplay by Milo adaka Ando is subtle an observant one is reminded of short fiction by Andre dubis William Trevor UDA a Welty Raymond Carver it specifically does not tell their story but focuses on two separate lies the characters are given equal weight and have individual story arcs which do not intersect but simply inevitably meet there is an overlay of racism in the story Hank's father Buck Peter Bole is a hateful racist and Hank mirrors his attitude but the movie is not about Redemption not about how Hank overcomes his attitudes but about how they fall away from him like a dead skin because his other feelings are so much more urgent the movie then is not about overcoming Prejudice but sidest stepping it because it comes to seem monstrously irrelevant Hank is an abused son and an abusive father his old man Buck confined to a wheelchair and a stroller still exercises an iron will over the family all three generations live under his roof and when Hank son Sunny Heath Ledger opts out of of the family sickness Buck judgment is cruel he was weak we do not learn much about leticia's parents but she is a bad mother alternately smothering her son Tyrell coronji Calhoun with love and screaming at him that he's a fat little piggy she drinks too much has been served with an eviction notice sees herself as a loser she has no affection at all for tyrell's father Lawrence Shan combms on death row and makes it clear during a visitation that she is there strictly for her son there is no Side Story to paint Lawrence as a victim in a bad man he tells spiral you're the best of me Leticia is all messed up she sustains a loss that derails her and it happens by coincidence that Hank is there when he can perform a service this makes them visible to each other it is safe to say that no one else in the community is visible in terms of human need to either one Hank's shy slow courtship is so tentative it's like he's sleepwalking toward her her response is dictated by the fact that she has nowhere else to turn they have a key conversation in which the bodies of both characters are tilted away from each other as if fearful of being any closer and notice another conversation when she's been drinking and she waves her hands and one hand keeps falling on Hank's lap she doesn't seem to notice and here is the point he doesn't seem willing to their intimate scenes are ordinary and simple a contrast to Hank's cold mercenary arrangement with a local hooker the films only floor is the way Mark forer allows his camera to linger on Barry's half cloth Beauty this story is not about sex appeal and if the camera sees her that way we are pretty sure that Hank doesn't what he sees what she sees is defined not by desire but by need students of screenwriting should study the way the film handles the crucial Passages at the end when she discovers some drawings and understands their meaning here is where a lesser movie would have supplied an obligatory confrontation Leticia never mentions the drawings to Hank why not because it is time to move on because she understands why he withheld information because she has no alternative because she senses that the drawings would not exist if the artist hated his subject because she is too tired and this is just one more nail on the cross because she forgives what the movie cannot say the characters have disappeared into the mysteries of the heart monsters ball demonstrates that to explain all its Mysteries a movie would have to limit itself to Mysteries that can be explained as for myself as Leticia rejoined Hank in the last shot of the movie I was thinking about her as deeply and urgently as about any movie character I can remember capital punishment has been on Hollywood's mind since its earliest days in DW Griffith's 1916 epic intolerance the first truly Great American movie there are four epodes centering On inhumanity Through the Ages the historical sections focus on the destruction of Prince belshazzar's regime in Babylon the crucifixion of Christ and the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in the Contemporary episode set in an American city a labor activist is framed for murder and rescued from The Gallows at the very last moment by his devoted wife more recently weave had a spade of pictures that reflect the blight upon the land brought about by capital punishment that cruel and unusual form of Retribution visited almost entirely on Lower Class mostly black murderers and exploited for political advancement by both Bill Clinton and George W Bush when State Governors the forest known examples are set in the South and have titles that stem from the euphemistic language employed by Waters working on death row Dead Man Walking The Last Dance The Green Mile and now monsters ball the title were told is an Old English term for a party in jail for a condemned man before he's executed the man awaiting the chair in Mark forester's film is Lawrence Musgrove an African-American who's been on death row in a Georgia Penitentiary for 11 years though the nature of his crime is never revealed he's played by the rap artist and founder of Bad Boy Records sha Puff Daddy combms who knows a few things about death from Musgrove situation spring two narrative strands that run parallel for half of the movie before the can joined the first involves his wife Leticia halberry aw and their overweight 13-year-old son tyell who has only known his father as a condemned man the other concerns the low middle class groski family three generations of correction officers with the Georgia Penitentiary service Buck Peter Bole a brutal racist crippled by arthritis and inisa his son Hank Billy B Thor a taciturn dedicated senior prison officer and Hank's son Sunny Heath Ledger an inexperienced Young Water Hank is in charge of musgrove's execution and turns violently on sunny when he lets the side down by vomiting while escorting The Condemned man to the chair meanwhile the chains smoking Laticia thumps her obese son when she discovers he's been gorging on chocolate one suspects that God must have given job a little respit in order to throw a few thunderbolts at this miserable Georgian Township and especially at these two families the wives of both buck and Hank have committed suicide and in a sudden shocking scene the humiliated Sunny kills himself in front of his contemptuous father and grandfather shortly thereafter Hank leaves the prison service and buys has a filling station as if it weren't enough for latisha's husband to go to the electric chair her car packs in her home is repossessed by BFFs and her son is killed by a hidden drun driver these sad stunted lives bring to mind Philip Lans this be the verse Man Hands On misery to man it deepens like a coastal shelf get out as early as you can and don't have any kids yourself but this film has a message of Hope for Hank meets Leticia after the hitandrun accident and drives her dying son to the hospital they are the Orphans of the Storm meeting quite literally during a torrential downpour and the film poses a big question can they go beyond consoling each other in their terrible grief cross racial barriers and break out of the cycle of violence emotional deprivation and self-hatred that determines their lives the developing Affair between Hank and Leticia is given the Ring Of Truth by its generally unsentimental handling their first bout of Love Making begins tentatively as they get a little drunk it's an extended sweaty business initially awkward but increasingly tender and quite different from the soft focused slow Fade Out treatment one customarily finds in Hollywood Productions there is some clumsiness in the film especially with the plot turning on people's ignorance of matters they might have picked up from a local newspaper or town gossip but there's nothing wrong with the performances boil and astonishing presence with that enormous marmal head and piggy eyes is powerful as always Billy Bob Thornton since his emergence as screenwriter and co-star of one false move a decade ago has established himself as one of the best actors in American Cinema as well as a gifted director and writer how Berry demonstrates an impressive range of emotions in the best role she's had to date and there are several scenes in Monsters ball that are as memorable as her performance on Oscar Knight when she justly received a Best Actress award for this picture as I open this review and glance at the news I see a divided America choosing between two very different candidates for the S presidency in 2020 while elsewhere yet another black American has been shot by police officers one can only despair race relations are complex and brutal in the s despite the civil rights movement that garnered headlines across the globe in the 1960s that is not to say the S is alar in the UK I look around at a country that has changed dramatically in just a few years torn apart by brexit with intolerance towards people from overseas seemingly growing worse by the day only a few days ago I read of some British people being delighted that refugees had drowned trying to find Sanctuary here personally I have never understood racism or xenophobia so to hear of it becoming so prevalent in the UK is horrifying but ours is not a proud history when you look back at the So-Cal glorious British Empire in Mark forer's 2001 film monsters ball we explore a multitude of relationships between lovers families classes and across a community with love and hate being a regular occurrence monsters ball initially looks at three generations of men who have all worked as correctional officers at a prison in Georgia Buck Peter Bo is retired and now ailing but racial Prejudice still runs strongly in his veins Buck son Hank Billy Bob Thornton is Deputy Warden at the prison and now the man of the house inheriting much of his father's racial hatred and not averse to threatening two local boys with a shotgun for being too close to his home Hank's son Sunny Heath Ledger also works at the prison but is considered Weak by his father and grandfather not sharing their aversion to black people and being very much a symbol of how attitudes did change in the S over time this is a man's world there are no women here Hank is a widow while his mother committed suicide with buck expressing no grief for her lost contact with women is at a nearby Diner or through momentary sing of lust with a local prostitute don't mess with this male hegemony the film's drama unfolds when Hank and sunny are charged with overseeing the execution of Lawrence Musgrove Shan combes a convicted murderer in the aftermath of musgrove's death Hank's world is turned upside down when he connects with a woman named Leticia halberry and her son Tyrell kangi Calhoun despite his inbred Prejudice Hank becomes drawn to Leticia not realizing that that she is now the Widow of Lawrence Musgrove moners ball is a carefully paced film and requires attention and patience there are moments of contemplation where the characters are silent lost in their thoughts as they assess the world around them each one fragile in their own way though some hide it better than others while racial division is obvious here we also have class divide as well Hank and his family seem comfortable while Leticia is facing the stress of eviction her husband's upcoming execution not to mention her son being obese and partial to hiding candy bars around the home ultimately it is through mutual tragedies that Hank and latisha's worlds become entwined and an unlikely connection between them begins this isn't a love at first sight story nor is it one with the man bringing the woman flowers and sunshine to light up her Dark World the story is often raw and gritty the characters trying to eek happiness out of grief and sorrow which is never an easy task one of the few things I knew about this film prior to watching it was that there isn't much talked about sex scene it is graphic but not there just for the sake of it unlike many films it represents an outpouring of pent up emotion and felt completely apt for the storyline the acting here is solid with Hal Berry excelling and winning an Oscar for her performance unfortunately at the time of writing she Remains the only woman of color to have ever received the best actress award very hard to believe Billy Bob Thornton is also good here with Hank Bridging the Gap between his father and son having much of Buck's hatred but buried beneath the exterior is the The Compassion to be found in Sunny where the film suffers is not all the narratives running throughout feeling properly tied up by the conclusion we are given resolutions of sorts but still left wondering about many things by the time the final credits roll if you want fast-paced and eventful then this may not be for you but if you have the patience there is still a good film to be found here and the acting is First Rate Hank groski Billy Bob thoron is like his father and his son a Georgia corrections officer Laticia Musgrove Berry is a waitress struggling to make ends meet and to raise her 12-year-old son she is also the Widow of a man whose execution Hank helped to conduct the relationship between Hank and Leticia a relationship born of Chance's moral reflex and desperate need is at the center of monsters ball a tough heartfelt new film from The Young Swiss born director Mark Forster in outline the story of Hank and leticia's entwined lives might seem implausible and the events that surrounded three deaths including the unblinkingly filmed electrocution of leticia's husband been Lawrence Shan coms could have smothered the movie in melodrama monsters ball could easily have been an exercise in Liberal high-mindedness a cinematic lecture on the inhumanity of the death penalty or the legacy of Southern racism but Mr forer and the screenwriters Milo adeka and will Ros who is a native of Georgia are more interested in the details of character and muu than in deducing right thinking morals Hank and latia are not easy people and much to its credit monsters bow is not an easy picture Mr Forster delived Li pacing and the gritty smudge look that Roberto sheifer the cinematographer brings to the worker day modern South create an atmosphere heavy with the buried emotions of grief rage and Terror Hank lives in the shadow of his bullying bigoted Father Peter Bole and a brutal code of masculine behavior that blocks all access to feeling but if Hank feels at all sorry for himself he does not show us and Mr Thornton earns our sympathy the hard way by showing us Hank at his unvarnished worst you've always hated me haven't you demands his son Sunny Heath Ledger a sense troubled soul who is clearly not cut out for death row Duty yes I have is Hanks eventon reply the night before Sunny had incurred his father's wrath by showing intolerable weakness during musgrove's walk to the electric chair as one of his African-American colleagues tried to pull him off his son Hank exploded in an obscene racist Tade this is not you Hank his coworker insisted trying to calm him down this is me Hank yells back this is me he's right Hank's Prejudice and suspicion are not simply mistaken attitudes in need of Correction they are integral to his character but so is a habitual courtesy the writers catch the quiet politeness that inflects even the most tense or hostile exchanges and a reluctant sense of decency these qualities overtake the others in a way that surprises Hank himself and his transformation in Hollywood as in the Baptist Church they like to call it Redemption is all the more astonishing for being almost surreptitious Mr Thornton one of the most gifted Screen Actors working today outd does himself for her part Miss Barry proves herself to be an actress of impressive courage and insight like Hank Leticia is a character who could have been simplified turned into a one dimensional victim or a saint Miss Barry emphasizes the character's temper and also the vulnerability beneath her toughness what she has in common with Hank is an alienation from her finer emotions she loves her son Tyrell well played by 10-year-old coronji Calhoun in his first film role but he is also the target of her anger and shame in the last minutes of the movie the burden of dramatic resolution Falls squarely on Miss Barry and she SES the film's conclusion is an enormous gamble for the filmmakers as well as for latia and Hank and it is above all Miss Barry's Fearless concentration that converts potential sentimentality into honest complex emotion the characters and the bond that develops between them are too complex for words and the writers use very few their economy and the eloquence of Mr forer's unshowy beautiful images give monsters ball the density and strangeness of real life the raw intimacy of some of the scenes whether they take place at a diner in the death house or in the bedroom is breathtaking in the end the movie belongs to the actors to miss Barry and Mr Thornton principally but also to the large Supporting Cast including Mr combes Mr Ledger and the Hip-Hop star Moss death as Hank's neighbor down the road this is one of those rare movies in which even people glimpsed only for a moment or two seem to have lives that ramify beyond the screen as if the story were being witnessed rather than dramatized a powerful complex emotionally charged human interest drama about change suddenly happening to a real person not a Hollywood cutter type as he has to face his inward racist demons in a part of the country where racial attitudes are changing but Prejudice is still apparently deepr rooted the film makes the white bigot out to be a regular guy whose racism is a natural part of his makeup someone we have all probably met and not some obvious monster we can't relate to he will help out a black woman in trouble and an unlikely relationship will develop between them as they provocatively confront the same fear many in the country have about racial mixing it also shows how the two lovers struggle to get along to just survive and are so lost and lonely but they are capable when given the chance of seeking their own personal happiness over their set beliefs the 31-year-old Swiss born and myu film school graduate Mark fer everything put together directs a film about a racist who overcomes his hatred because of a family tragedy that makes him become more open-minded and thoughtful and brave as he finds that he needs to be with someone to make him feel good again in the the hands of a wrong director this could have played like a liberal lesson in morals about the evils of racism and the death penalty and been merely a dactic exercise Instead This is a heartfelt and probative melodrama that has the white racist struggle in his own inarticulate way to try to explain himself convincingly to the black woman he wants to be with that there's a decent side to him that can be brought out in the right circumstances the film wisely uses the emotional loss of both the white and black families against the lingering background of the South's resistance to change its old race way of life to show that all sides have lost something dear to them therefore each character is forced to learn more about how they function in order to overcome their misery which makes this film so unique and inflammatory as a character study rather than an overview of racism in the film's ambiguous characterization of the two lovers it gambles in its conclusion that maybe since we have seen both their worst they have both been bad parents and best sides they are both capable of doing the right thing that may be Against All Odds their love affair based on need might work the film is set in a contemporary rural Georgia small town where Hank groski Billy Bob Thon and his only son Sunny Heath Ledger are currently Georgia Corrections Officers they are following in the footsteps of Sunny's retired correction officer dad The Bullying racist invalid with INF fisma Buck Peter Bole the groski father and son are assigned death row Duty in the execution of a cop killer Hank supervises the prisoners walk to the electric chair and of the strapping him into the chair while Sunny who is not psychologically fit to work in a prison is part of the team that carries this out the other story is about Leticia Musgrove howberry a pretty black waitress whose husband Lawrence sha Puffy Combs was lost to her when he was arrested 11 years ago and is now about to be executed she can't manage things on her own as his absence leaves her on the verge of losing her job and her house their 12-year-old son tyell coronji Calhoun he's 10 is a good kid but he disappoints her because he has no willpower to stop eating and is obese this causes her to hit him and be angry and ashamed of him but she still can't stop loving him the film depicts buck as a grouch filled with racial hatred who can't accept change while Hank is also an outspoken racist who is reconciled to living a miserable life Sunny is a more sensitive soul and is seen as being condemned by his family for being friendly with his black neighbor ryus Cooper M deaf rapper poet and his two boys his father tells him that he hates him and his grandfather says he's a weakling Hank's wife committed suicide and that has left him bitter and it has left Sunny without an Ally to relieve all the racial intolerance he is Poisoned With while living in his grandfather's house it is only the routines in life that Hank is left with from all his grief and loss as he is just satisfied to go to the same Diner and every time order black coffee and chocolate ice cream he only eats with a white plastic spoon speaking of racial symbols on his job he is mostly concerned that he wants everything to go smoothly during Lawrence's execution but when Sunny messes up this becomes too much for Hank to handle and it leads to a chain of events that will alter Hank's life forever it takes a few chance encounters for Hank and Leticia to meet not aware that they have a connection through the execution but slowly they come to rely on one another to make them feel good again from all the misery they have recently been through and when they each learn I in their own way how they are connected they each must learn how to live with that the film makes no big deal about that openly but lets the viewer absorb what effects it has on them by wisely shunning a formula confrontational scene in favor of quiet scenes where each is seen absorb absorbing that knowledge in their own quiet way it is through some really fine acting performances on the part of both actors that allows us to see them actually feel each other as they overcome the heavy-handed part of the melodrama the actors prevent any messages sent on racism from sinking the film with a phony ring to it both actors show courage in their roles and make their characters vibrant and unpredictable and filled with vulnerability passion and an inner toughness when new together and making love the scenes were dramatic and fitting for what they were searching for in each other this is an actor's film and these two actors make this Pi Sparkle with intelligence and insightfulness the title monsters ball comes from a custom in medieval England where prisoners awaiting execution were called Monsters the night before their execution their jailers would hold a feast known as a Monster's Ball as their final farewell the following info was included in my program notes the film was completed with a production budget of $2.5 million the top three stars Thornton Barry and Ledger deferred their upfront fees which would normally add up to around $15 million writers Atta and roko a native of Georgia actors by training both audition for and landed roles in Monsters ball their own film Atta plays a member of the death team and roko is the warden burning with a quiet intensity monsters ball is bolstered by a poetic intelligent sensibility not seen in an American Film since Terren Malik's The Thin Red Line although sturdy and well wrought pick is also a fragile creation that is best experienced with minimum Advanced knowledge of its unlikely sounding story Milo attakus and woko script and Mark Forster's Direction reinforce one another and though the theme of the burdens and faults of fathers visited upon sons and a Relentless feeling of tragedy will remind some of Paul Shredder's Affliction the ultimate notes of Hope Place pick in its own distinct Arena where adults May achieve renewed and well-earned sense of purpose strong critical support and bubbling Fascination about lead thesps Billy Bob Thornton and how Barry will help break through the twin barriers of an eccentric title and a demanding though never taxing Pace to go on a crossover odds for a resolutely Indie work of art there was little in the Swiss born forer second feature the chamber workor everything put together to indicate the creative leap repped by monsters ball Forster appears much more at home with the widescreen frame and its compositional and dramatic choices than he did with the previous films man at video Jazz he certainly indicates that he's now a director of the first order tone here suggests a strong kinship with the S scaling Tales of disappointment by Richard Ford mofle presenting three generations of the groski family in the opening minutes tale begins with Hank Thornton a death row guard at Georgia estate Penitentiary distinctly defined by his habits which include eating ice cream with a plastic spoon and throwing up the day before he helps with executions his son simply known as Sunny Heath Ledger who also works as a death row guard Spends His nights visiting a local hooker Hank dad Buck Peter Bole a retired prison guard is hooked up to an oxygen tank and religiously Clips news items about prisoners his racist spewing may have influenced Hank who in purist redneck style orderers sons of his black neighbor ryus M deaf and Pals of Sunny off his property Hank explains to Sunny that condemned man Lawrence Musgrove sha com's execution will be what the guards call a Monster's Ball without a lawyer or preacher musgrove's wife Laticia Barry with her overweight candy addicted son Tyrell kangi Calhoun visit him for the last time after an 11-year vigil but want attend his electrocution which moveie sophisticated skill of observation show is both more brutal than the injection scene in dead man walking and less hysterical than the zapping sequence in The Green Mile on Lawrence's last walk however Sunny vomits in full view of everyone setting Hank into a violent shamed rage from the 30-minute Mark of Lawrence's demise monsters ball becomes for the next 25 minutes a kind of Dance of Death that appears to have no end so totally devastating and in its staging shocking is the sense of lost lives that the movie feels like a Vortex of hopelessness these characters pend in by a deep Southern Culture still defined by animous and inadequacies that go even Beyond racism have nothing left but to Pummel each other thus leticia's beating of Tyrell for eating candy behind her back goes beyond A Mother's Rage towards some unexpressed self-hatred never has the site of a boy eating a chocolate bar looked sadder nonethless a subtle change of seasons descends over the movie as Hank quits his guard job and extends a hand of help to Leticia which includes letting her seduce him in a scene of raw intimacy that forer's camera catches on the slide Hank sees Laticia as a means to a New Direction Leticia for her part holds much of the drama of the second hour it's a measure of Thornton's extraordinarily subtle performance that the changes in Hank arrive in barely perceptible movements there's the sense one that only comes in the most exciting screen acting work of a thesp uncovering his character's layers in the moment it happens on camera after the light comedy of Bandits and the mannered minimalism of the man who wasn't their Thornton finds just the right balance with Hank a man a few words words but ever expanding feeling whom the actor appears to have in his bones Barry's work feels no more prop planned than Thornton's but her latia is a woman of abs and flows that are so different from Hanks that we wonder if they'll ever work as a couple Barry with forer's Keen encouragement allows Leticia to silently absorb Hank's giving nature and it seems to transform her as well be UT never in a way that announces itself as a moment of Revelation this proves crucial in pick's final minutes the closest pick comes to being blunt is when Buck but boil talking through his wheezing adds a feeble surface to Buck's ugly inits that makes even this scumbag sympathetic Ledger perf is a short cold cruel portrait of a young man with no Center while wrap star Combs and presses by avoiding the slightest hint of melodrama even more impressive is Young newcomer calhon whose inner struggles recall the poor young black kids of last year's George Washington working with regular lens of Roberto shifa Forster explores every expressive possibility in the widescreen frame the characters are especially Hank appear at points to be cornered at the edges while objects framed pictures clothing the wire hooked up to the electric chair take on giant proportions in close-ups Tech and Design Elements never call attention to themselves while the look might be turned Southern humidity in a year of dreadful overscoring Ash and Spencer synth and guitar underscore is in perfect Moody tandem with the images monsters ball has already garnered two Oscar nominations including one for the lovely halberry for best actress and received numerous end of the year accolades is monsters ball the startling ruminations on Race that you're being told well yes and no said in the South Hank brosi Billy Bob thoron and his son Sunny Heath Ledger are prison guards at the State Penitentiary and preparing for an execution the man to die is Lawrence Musgrove sha Combs who will be leaving behind and young son and making a widow out of Laticia halberry the tension in the groski home escalates especially as Hank has chosen to care for his own ailing Father Peter Bole who still finds the time to spout out racist rhetoric through an oxygen mask one last confrontation leaves a permanent Mark of emptiness on the family Laticia is struggling to just make ends meet and fight an impending eviction her car keeps breaking down on her she's been let go from her job as a waitress and she has to raise a son by herself all the while trying to encourage him to lose weight Leticia is breaking down and her world around her is crumbling one night Laticia gets into an accident walking home along the roadside and needs assistance badly the one who pulls the car aside to help is actually Hank as time goes by he helps Leticia however he can WEA it's giving her a ride home from the diner or just staying with her so she won't be alone Hank and Leticia come together out of mutual need and grief there are two people entirely wrong for each other that Kindle a passion that seems to transcend race Laticia needs someone to take care of her after having a husband on death row and fighting to stay above the poverty line Hank needs someone to take care of out of a mixture of compounded loneliness and grief Thornton reprises the repressed protagonist of the man who wasn't there with his portrayal of Hank his lips are pursed looking a tad like Mr Limpet and he expresses more with a furrowed brow and stare than words could manage Thornton's performance is good and the audience does really end up rooting for Hank but the performance doesn't resonate possibly because of the writing for the character I guess one could say monsters ball is how Barry's legitimization as an actress Barry gives the performance of her career and has moments where she's on the verge of ripping your heart out monsters ball is not exactly the scorching portrait of race relations that it has been hyped to be it's really more of a story about two characters with race being underscored except for a convenient occasion where it can become the Catalyst to a fight the film also takes some of its metaphors rather simply the connection between Father and Son includes Hank and sunny using the same prostitute Hank eats every night in the same Diner and always orders a bowl of chocolate ice cream get it and black coffee get it all the B who over the explicit sex scene thank you so much news fluff is undeserving the sex scene is no different than 100 scene before and many on Showtime during the late hours the scene serves its purpose thematically in the story for its characters but it really isn't hot and steamy as it's been dubbed to be Move Along folks besides the acting monsters ball has some other accomplishments up its sleeve the cinematography is gorgeous and uses lights and darks to an incredibly effective degree there are many scenes where you might be paying more attention to how the scene looks than the scene itself the music is also commendable for the simple task of not becoming intrusive and actually enhancing the story this is what scores are intended to do monsters ball may be the biggest suck andaron comfortably movie to come out in a long time I found myself enacting this measure every time someone did something horrible said something racist or surprisingly died this may be because I had the entire theater to myself for my own Amusement monsters ball is certainly a well- written and well- acted film it's just not up to Snuff when it comes to best picture speculation monsters ball was Lee Daniel's first movie as a producer in years before his first directing effort 2005 Shadow Boxer but it's clear as ever in 2021 that his influence is all over this movie the elements that would come to Define Daniel's later movies like Precious and the paper boy and the United States versus Billy Holiday are here and that's the awkward and sometimes jarring discordant elements of the serious and the of camp and sincerity the movies are also so unabashedly horny a Lee Daniel's movie is trying to say something sometimes poorly often too many things and too spread out and monsters ball is one of those statement movies or at least it was upon release it was a screenplay developed in the mid 199s by actors Milo OA and W Roos and while it attracted talented points it didn't really gain traction until Daniels came on board as its Shepherd you can see what would be so attractive to Daniels with this mixture of odd elements as its owner clict Brew it's a romance that should not work it's life lessons about racism that seem heavy-handed it's a Thrust of a sex scene that goes on for four uncomfortable minutes I think there's a recognizable argument to be had that this romance doesn't quite work it's more out of necessity than connection but maybe that's even the point these are two wounded people finding solace in one another and maybe that's enough in a world of pain and uncertainty just finding someone who in latisha's words makes you feel good monsters ball isn't as wild and campy as other Daniels joints but you can see the DNA of his other movies the seeds of artistic flowers that would Bloom into his style it's got a bit more of an Ry Indi Sheen here but monsters ball might as well be Lee Daniel's monsters ball as far as its key influence certainly more than director Mark forer rewatching this movie many years later it's clear to me that it is not a movie about race relations that this is an implicit subject as well but much more an examination on generational toxic masculinity this makes much more sense for me with the prominence given to Hank Billy Bob Fon perspective over Leticia halberry it's about him learning to break free of his racial prejudices yes but that's more one sign of him learning to break free of the tyranny of his father's influence and his father Peter Bole is an infirmed cartoon of toxic masculinity this is a man who brags about his wife dying and how many women he cheated on her with this is a man who calls his grandson Sunny Heath Ledger week because he displayed empathy for an inmate on death row it's his close-minded ful definition of what constitutes a real man that has become the lingering poison infecting the groski family tree it's not subtle in the slightest but monsters ball is effective in communicating cycles of abuse Hank carries many of his father's Tendencies and Views his own son with contempt for not being able to meet these same restrictive definitions of Manliness that his father imposed on him when his son needs him the most in his Cry for Help is where Hank fails him telling him he does in fact hate him and that's when he loses him forever the of the movie is tracing Hank's journey to Breaking Free from the vile influence of a decrepit old man to that end the story structure of monsters ball works better in the span of 110 minutes Hank has to reflect on what the negative influences of his life are and to break free of them when he finally decides to put his father in a nursing home the lady in charge smiles and says You must love your father Hank is quick to reply no I don't but he's my father there is no love between these men because love was most likely viewed as weakness it's the last thing Sunny says before killing himself after his father says he hates him well I've always loved you when Laticia looks at a picture of Sunny something that Hank doesn't share until late in the film she remarks that Sunny doesn't look like Hank he replies that Sunny has his mother in him implying the things that made him better came from her this is a character Journey that literally culminates in a man performing oral sex on a woman as a sign of his personal growth taken by itself it sounds laughable but it mostly works in the context of the movie surely his father would view the giving of pleasure to another as a waste of energy and time so his desire to give rather than receive ends up being his character's defining push away from the negativity of his father my issue is that Leticia feels less like a fully fleshed out person and more like an infanti victim she's a single mother struggling to keep her job keep her home and keep her son's weight in check her husband is on death row she's got a lot of opportunities to be given Dimension and insight however the movie never seems to deem her ready for that attention until the very very end literally the last scene of the movie beforehand she's more a prop to the development of others someone to gauge Hank's personal growth and someone to be inflicted with all manners of indignities and abuses when she interacts with Hank's father and he's as awful as you would expect her residual pain and outrage is the final straw for Hank who then moves the old man out her entire relationship with her son feels awkwardly handled fiction can illuminate the lives of complicated people people with flaws that don't always make the best decisions but her single-minded obsession with her son's weight and her subsequent beating of him feels like another chain of abuse but without the explan aan otherwise it's just a woman in pain berating her son and then the boy has to die and it feels excessive I know that Hank and Leticia Bond over their Mutual grief over having lost a son but it feels like Leticia is more a mar for Hank's growth during their protracted sex scene her voice cracks and sounds uncomfortably childish at the end she asks Hank to take care of her because she needs it she comes across like an infantilized version of a woman who is there to cry and be pretty that's why the final moment of the movie rings so curious for me after Hank puts his father away what is the conflict here Laticia agrees to move in with Hank after being evicted and it all seems to be going well then while he's out retrieving his favorite ice cream she discovers that Hank has drawings by her late husband reshaping her understanding of Hank but what is that reshaping before he was a guy she served at a d who happened to help her during the most trying time in her life does she think he was seeking her out to take advantage of her how she got the diner job because she lost her previous job and it's not like he sought her out but she might not be privy to any of that context it feels like an artificial conflict that's meant to boil over and possibly spell dun between these two can this butting relationship survive this Revelation but him still unclear what exactly the Revelation is he worked at the prison he was involved in the execution of her husband husband in a way walking him to the chair this seems artificially inflated to me and yet it is only here that the movie gives her the final say allowing Barry to wordlessly process this new information and whether or not it dramatically changes anything between her and Hank she never comments to him about it you just have to study her face and it's here where the movie at long last treats Leticia with the courtesy of nuance monsters ball was made famous for two reasons the extended sex scene between Barry and Thornton and her Best Actress Oscar Victor the first ever for a woman of color and still the only one 20 years later let's start with Barry's performance which was definitely a leap above what she had been demonstrating with trashy Thrillers and lame comedies Barry is good here but the Lee Daniels of it all makes it feel like her performance is being pulled into less subtle more overtly soapy directions against her better judgments when she gets into a whiny space I kind of winced not because her character was undeserving of complaint but because the movie was shifting her into that infantilized victim box Barry is good here but after rewatching spax in the bedroom performance and Nicole Kidman's Mullen Rouge performance ID write her third of the chief 2001 best actress nominees Barry as an actress I have mixed feelings about early in my critical career 2004 is Catwoman did not help but I've come around to appreciate her more I greatly enjoyed her varied performances in 2012's Cloud Atlas she recently directed her first movie where she plays a middle-aged kickboxer and that sounds punishing and possibly opening I'm not the only one that seems to come back to the infamous sex seeing it constitutes almost all of the trivia about the film on MDB interesting not6 fact where Bentley was going to play Sunni but mysteriously dropped out he admitted to struggling with Heroin addiction later and the studio gave the production 48 hours to find a replacement and that's how Heath Ledger got it also I had to revise this paragraph several times to remove any phrases that might come across as unintended innuendos You could argue the sex scene is a turn point it happens at the halfway point of monsters ball and beforehand Leticia and Hank have expressed no romantic interest afterwards it becomes about their possible Odd Couple romance if that's what it can even be called the scene is played raw and desperate which is why it made me feel uncomfortable it wasn't because I was watching two actors pretend to physically go at it for an extended period it's because these characters were so sad and reaching out in desperation to feel anything fleeting the attention given to the scene just feels thematically wrong it's not offensively gross but it feels a little too prant a little too salacious for what the characters are going through emotionally Thornton has even said in interviews that this movie might have contributed to his eventual divorce from Angelina Jolie which seems strange to me considering she was also filming steamy scenes with Antonio Banderas at about the same time 2001's original sin director Mark forer has had an interesting career since helming this fam milon dollar Indie he's done Oscar bit dramas Finding Neverland The Kite Runner and quirky Indie Stranger Than Fiction stay in big Hollywood action movies Quantum of soless World War Z he was hand selected by producer Brad Pitt to direct World War Z forer has no distinct visible style to him but effectively Alters to the genre and story he's directing in some ways this is what a director should be and yet forer has never gotten credit for his versatility nobody's going to say Quantum of Solace is their favorite James Bond movie or even the best of Daniel Craig's run but it's not really forer's fault that movie didn't work his last two movies were smaller dramas 2016 as all I see is you and 2018 as misguided Christopher Robin and he's attached to movies about the Holocaust A Down World War II pilot the formation of Greenpeace and Thomas the Tank Engine so the man's versatility continues to go undervalued this is my final re-review of the 2001 film slate and my original review I think mostly holds up I was thinking the same thing about lazy metaphors and lacking substantial racial commentary but I better appreciate the scope of the movie not on Race but on the effects of toxic masculinity I think I was more dazzled by the photography in 2011 or02 when it was made available to us in central Ohio than in 2021 monsters ball is a clumsy but well-intentioned movie that has some pristine elements to it but I don't quite know if it ever coalesces into the important movie it desires it's an interesting artifact of Lee Daniels before he became an industry unto himself and with Barry showcasing just what she was capable of if given the right opportunity this began a run of pretty actress goes drab of Oscar winners 2002 as Nicole Kidman 2003's chiz th and 2004's Hillary Swank and so the biggest lesson of monsters ball after all might have been providing a successful template for future actresses to follow a path to Oscar gold