Monday

“Is it true you’re only happy when you’re failing?”

Known better by the name “Monday the Movie”, this film follows an American immigration lawyer, Chloe (Denise Gough), and an American DJ, Mickey (Sebastian Stan) living in Greece. They meet at a party one night and instantly fall for each other, so hard that they wake up naked on the beach the next morning. It is an intense, whirlwind romance in the heart of Athens that takes you along on the couple’s drunken adventures as they figure out what they truly want in life.

Many critics of the movie have claimed that the plot was shallow, or even nonexistent, but I would have to disagree. The plot is very complicated, it’s just the lack of detail we get that throws people off. But, that’s what makes the movie special. We see how the story and its events affect the characters directly, instead of watching every single plot point playing out to the end, which I think makes the movie all that more interesting.

Another thing I liked about the movie was how it truly felt like we were just watching these people live for a specific amount of time. Actually, it almost felt like we were watching their memories, and that’s why things seemed so jumbled and the plot seemed “shallow”. Truly, it is a film that takes you on a journey that feels raw and whole. All of the unanswered questions and fleeting moments that seemed more important than they were presented just add to the entire feeling of the movie.

Something I noticed was a very gradual, and almost missable character development between Chloe and Mickey. In the beginning of the movie, Mickey is a child. He’s immature and irresponsible and has no goals or direction in his life, while Chloe seems more adult and mature. But, by the end of the movie, we see them switch places entirely, from their mentality and behavior all the way to their clothes and stature. It is a tiny but very important piece to the movie that really shows a lot about the characters and their relationship with each other.

Overall, everything about this movie—the cinematography, the acting, the writing, the story, the costumes, the color schemes, the setting—was beautiful. It was a heavy and intense narrative wrapped up in a fun romance on an island paradise.

-Bella