Written by Lucy Campbell
Directed by Matt Vesely

A headstrong journalist whose investigative podcast uncovers a strange artifact, an alien conspiracy, and the lies at the heart of her own story. (IMDB)

Lily Sullivan is The Interviewer, a disgraced journalist coming to terms with the destruction of her career after running a story about a politician which she was convinced was true, but for which she couldn’t provide the receipts.

House-sitting her parents’ modern country mansion she slogs away on a low-rent podcast that trades on sensationalism and conspiracy theories. She clearly thinks this is beneath her being less than complimentary about her listeners and the people calling with stories but, with her career in tatters, and her own home under siege by reporters, what other option does she have?

With time running out on this job, she is in desperate need of a killer hook when a mysterious email puts her on the scent of a decades-old story about a mysterious black brick. Descending into a rabbit hole of sinister tales from across the world she discovers there are dozens, if not hundreds, of people out there who have come across these bricks.

As she interviews those who have come into contact with the artefacts, she uncovers accounts of strange visions that occur just before a brick appears and, as the stories mount up and the mystery grows, The Interviewer gets what she wants, a conspiracy that pushes the figures on her podcast through the roof.

But at what cost? As the story develops, so does The Interviewer’s obsession. Cyncial to begin with, he doubts fade when she too starts to have visions and her health takes a turn for the worse. As she digs deeper and uncovers her own family’s link to the bricks, things start to fall apart and the mystery becomes personal.

As a title, “MONOLITH” does a lot of the heavy lifting here. Sullivan carries the film as the only character onscreen, her only interactions being on the phone as she talks to various people about the bricks. It obviously also refers to the strange black bricks themselves, mysterious monoliths that have come into people’s lives at times of stress and change like the alien children of the famous alien catalyst from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The concept of the black brick is also very obviously a nod towards our own mobile phones, tablet computers and the multitude of “bricks” that are ever present in our technology-heavy lives. Much like the black bricks we find glued to our hands and which hypnotise us with their delights, The Interviewer finds herself slowly drawn into the world of the bricks which her contacts believe could be spreading some sort of ‘disease’ through the power of the spoken word.

There are parallels here with the great Pontypool which deals with a virus transmitted through language, as well as the Spotify Original ‘Quiet Part Loud’ which explores similar themes around a “word of mouth” virus and the impact of social media and technology. Both definitely worth a look – or a listen! I also found myself thinking about Annihilation at one point, but you will have to watch to work out why.

Monolith is nicely directed and does a great job as a one-hander, supporting a great performance from Sullivan as The Interviewer.  It is always going to be difficult to sustain the audience’s focus in a film where you only have one onscreen character, and the story needs to be good enough to pull the audience in. Monolith just about manages that by ensuring that the potentially static scenes of phone calls are intriguing enough to drive the movie; the black bricks and their stories are suitably mysterious and pitched just right to keep the audience on the hook. I did find it “dipped” slightly in the middle, but the ending ramped up the tension and mystery enough to make up for any doubts I had at the half-way mark. This was a very small blip in an otherwise solid 94 minutes.

In other hands, this could have ended up as an arty hour and a half of pensive camera shots of the scenery and dreamy images of Sullivan gazing out into the garden as she contemplates the bricks. You do get a bit of that, but Matt Vesely has the balance just right as he veers between slow build mystery and The Interviewer’s descent into the brick rabbit-hole. As I said above, there was just one short moment, when I felt things dragged a little, but it didn’t last for long.

The movie isn’t wrapped up with a nice little bow. You aren’t going to get clear answers about the black bricks and what they are or what they are doing to people, but the breadcrumbs are laid, and Monolith leaves the audience with enough to contemplate it’s statement on modern life and our obsession with technology. Go with it and the film, ultimately, rewards its audience.

Monolith is a thought-provoking, slow-build mystery that explores the impacts of technology on modern life and the impact it can have on our identity and engagement with the world around us. There is scope for a variety of interpretations and the potential for discovering more with a rewatch. Everyone has a different brick story and I am sure everyone will have their own take on The Interviewer’s .

And that is the key to viewing Monolith – have an open mind…. and listen.

Blue Finch Film Releasing presents Monolith on digital platforms 26 February