By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3 cats
Director: Alexis Gambis
Starring: Alexis Rasmussen | Angélica Aragón | aulina Gaitan | Electra Avellan | Noe Hernandez | Tenoch Huerta | William Mapother
Country: mexico, united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 97
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8908432/reference
Michael says: “SON OF MONARCHS is a challenging film to watch, as surely as it must have been a challenging film to make. Unfortunately, between the ambitiousness of its content, coupled with the splicing together of genetics, family trauma, and indigenous magical realism make it a bit of a jumbled mess. Sometimes overreaching serves a film, and other times it sinks it under the weight of all the ideas. Sadly, for me, SON OF MONARCHS falls in the latter category. The film focuses on Mendel, a biology grad student living in New York City and studying monarch butterflies. A return home to a village in Mexico to pay respects to his grandmother after her death, where as a young boy he played with the monarchs when they migrated south, underscores the dichotomy of his two lives, one steeped in a traumatic, childhood experience, the other steeped in science and genetics. Add to the narrative a thread about global warming, and the current state of immigration, and things start to get muddy. Most resonant are the impacts Mendel’s early life have had on him as an adult. He is estranged from his brother, who experienced the traumatic death of their parents in a markedly different way than Mendel, who ultimately fled the county. Simon on the other hand, doubled down on family, remaining steeped in the ways of their village and building a traditional life for himself. Their diverging memories of their shared trauma bursts forth in a scene late in the film. The other fascinating thread involved Mendal reconnecting with old friends while visiting his hometown, who stage strange mourning rituals where they take on the personas and attributes of their spirit animals around the fire. The film uses this ritual to stage a boundary-pushing finale that almost embraces the magical realism that the film flirts with throughout. It’s slightly disappointing that it doesn’t fully do so.
“Writer/director Alexis Gambis has a rather fascinating background. He is a rench-Venezuelan filmmaker and biologist whose films combine documentary and fiction, often embracing animal perspectives and experimenting with new forms of scientific storytelling. In 2008, he founded the Imagine Science Film Festival showcasing science in film from around the world. In SON OF MONARCHS he attempt to combine the scientific, the metaphysical, and the emotional to mixed affect. The film is gorgeous to watch, cinematographer Alejandro Mejía deftly capturing that blend visually. Sadly, those attributes don’t blend so well narratively and the end result seems overstuffed and disjointed. There are some beautiful moments where it all comes together, but those moments do not a great film make. Tenoch Huerta captures Mendel’s melancholy consistently, almost to the point of disengagement, but managing to stay engaged despite his somber storyline. Interestingly, he and Noé Hernández, who plays Mendel’s brother Simon, were both actors in the film SIN NOMBRE back in 2009. 3 cats”