{"id":14655,"date":"2019-08-14T11:26:55","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T15:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=14655"},"modified":"2021-03-25T22:26:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T02:26:06","slug":"impossible-monsters-film-review-greggwmorris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/impossible-monsters-film-review-greggwmorris\/","title":{"rendered":"<small><span style=\"color: #800000;\">#NewYorkLatinoFilmFestival<\/span><\/small><br>IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS Film Review (Audiences Should Know in Advanced That the Filmmakers Want to Terrorize the Bejesus Out of Them)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Ya&#8217; gotta&#8217; luv those rare films that early on, after you settled relaxed into your seat, try to seize control of your mind, body and soul whether you like it or not. I can&#8217;t get enough of their creative abracadabra! &#8211; Gregg W. Morris<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>An IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS film blurb available on the Internet is misleading for my taste: <strong><i>Dr. Rich Freeman (Tony Award winner Santino Fontana), an ambitious and well-liked psychology professor, pursues a sleep study with a focus on nightmares, dreams, and sleep paralysis \u2014 the success of which could result in a lucrative grant. As the line between dreams and reality blur, a member of the study is murdered, and everything begins to unravel, leaving Rich fighting to make things right.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I imagine the creative talent assigned to blurb for IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS had nightmares with their assigned task. There are times pre-publicity and publicity blurbs fumble their missions \u2013 that&#8217;s my opinion. They are suppose to entice, seduce, arouse, draw us to the theater without giving too much of the story away.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, providing too little isn&#8217;t good either.<\/p>\n<p><center><strong>Thank the gods for trailers for cinematic gems that should be seen \u2013 and seen more than once.<\/strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/krKOhF8y83U\" width=\"1000\" height=\"365\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/center><em>Directed by Nathan Catucci<br \/>\nWritten by Nathan Catucci<br \/>\nProduced by Dorottya Mathe, Jonathan Burkhart and Nathan Catucci<br \/>\nCinematography by Behnood Dadfar<br \/>\nEdited by Nathan Catucci and Nahuel Attar<br \/>\nMusic composed by Michael MacAllister<br \/>\nA stellar cast of stars, co-stars, characters including:<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Santino Fontana as Professor Rich<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Natalie Knepp\u00a0 as Leigh<\/em><br \/>\n<em>D\u00f3nall \u00d3 H\u00e9alai as Otis<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Dennis Boutsikaris as Steven<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Laila Robins as Dean Glasgow<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brownpapertickets.com\/event\/4301315\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AMC Empire 25, Thursday, August 15, 10:30 p.m. &#8211; Tickets<\/a><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Audiences Should Know in Advanced That the Filmmakers Want to Terrorize the Bejesus Out of Them<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>So, I accepted an offer to review this psychological thriller featuring a psychology professor who forms a focus group (all members students except one) to help him get a lucrative grant for a study of nightmares, dreams, and sleep paralysis so that he can significantly improve his career and academic stature in the eyes of his college administration.\u00a0 [Shades of the realpolitiks of the Academe are subtly rendered but vicious nonetheless.]<\/p>\n<p>Wham! \u2013 I&#8217;m blindsided minutes after the start of the film.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14658\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14658\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14658\" src=\"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/3-Impossible-monsters-poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"284\" srcset=\"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/3-Impossible-monsters-poster.jpg 500w, http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/3-Impossible-monsters-poster-264x300.jpg 264w, http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/3-Impossible-monsters-poster-260x295.jpg 260w, http:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/3-Impossible-monsters-poster-160x182.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-14658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture courtesy of &#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The storytelling is beyond belief, as if the storytellers had commingled conspiratorially with the spirits of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali and Jung to make a movie beyond the pale, drawing on the sinister and manipulative realpolitiks of Academe as backdrop, as background, and subtly but smartly executed.<\/p>\n<p>I was jimmy-jammed by a torrent of images. Blitzkriegs of startling, nightmarish imagery of dreams, daydreams, nightmares and daymares experienced by the characters \u2013 as well as hallucinations and illusions \u2013 inundated my conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious as well \u2013 coming at me like rapid-firing time warps shifting repeatedly with flashbacks and flashforwards.<\/p>\n<p>From one scene to the next, a relentlessly sinister film score pulsing with symphonic fervor fueled almost neverending apprehension throughout IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS. It kept me on high alert that something ghastly was about to happen in the scene before me or the scene to follow or the scene after that. It&#8217;s just a matter of time (I thought <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">and felt<\/span>) before something awesome is going to happen. Until, almost like an epiphany, I figure out what the filmmakers were up to, the derring-do they were pulling off.<\/p>\n<p>Alas, l won&#8217;t provide that spoiler here \u2013 and it\u2019s not out of the goodness of my heart. I want audiences to endure what I had to endure.<\/p>\n<p>But I can provide a few non-spoiling teasers. Like this one, of course: Life in Academe for student and professors, but especially students, can be a hell on earth. Or this one: IMPOSSIBLE MONSTERS has the soul of a well lensed and crafted film noir sans the usual supernatural and unworldly artifacts, but on steroids, nevertheless. Spooky and scary without the spooks, goons and, thank the gods, zombies.<\/p>\n<p>One of the features of Roman Polaski\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063522\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ROSEMARY\u2019S BABY (1968)<\/a> that wowed me was this: it would have been terrifying without the satanic and supernatural plot elements. I couldn&#8217;t get over the Big Apple urban paranoia, alienation, isolation and betrayal \u2013 matrimonial and otherwise \u2013 so much a part of his film. Another, this one suburban paranoia, alienation and betrayal, et. al.: Les Craven&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0087800\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)<\/a>. Freddy, the bastard child of the 100 fathers who raped his mom in an insane asylum, could have been just as terrifying as a relentless fantasy, nightmare or daymare sans Freddy&#8217;s satanic pact with Lucifer.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Ripped from the Headlines?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The setting is New York City but a significant film location is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccny.cuny.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">City College of New York<\/a> campus of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.cuny.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">City University of New York.<\/a> Belying the pristine scenes of NYC Academe portrayed in IMPOSSIBLE NIGHTMARES is a real world system under nightmarish stress. How much did the filmmakers draw on the realities for their impossible monsters? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/27\/nyregion\/city-college-president-lisa-coico-investigation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Investigation Into City College President\u2019s Finances: What We Know \u2013 <span style=\"color: #800000;\">New York Times<\/span>.<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/opinion\/ny-oped-the-true-crime-in-higher-education-20190402-xqdv2v22irao7c7pvatutyelke-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The true crime in higher education: how we\u2019ve abandoned public universities like CUNY \u2013 <span style=\"color: #800000;\">New York Daily News Opinion Piece.<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/new-york\/education\/ny-cuny-students-experience-homelessness-food-insecurity-20190327-qkilgsntmvbcvgqysz2lni4y7m-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thousands of CUNY students experience homelessness and food insecurity, report says &#8211; <span style=\"color: #800000;\">New York Daily News.<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/states\/new-york\/albany\/story\/2016\/02\/cuny-feels-the-effects-of-a-worsening-relationship-with-cuomo-031514\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CUNY Feels the Heat of Gov Cuomo&#8217;s Animosity \u2013 <span style=\"color: #800000;\">Politico.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this point I stop. Probably revealed too much already.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Gregg Morris can be reached at gmorris@hunter.cuny.edu<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Gregg W. Morris \u2013 The filmmakers really want you to have nightmares!<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/impossible-monsters-film-review-greggwmorris\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1415,1418,210,1420,153,1413,496,1422,1421,1414,1417,1416,1412,925,1419,295],"class_list":["post-14655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","tag-behnood-dadfar","tag-cast","tag-city-college","tag-co-stars","tag-cuny","tag-dorottya-mathe","tag-film-at-lincoln-center","tag-higher-education","tag-impossible-monsters","tag-jonathan-burkhart","tag-michael-macallister","tag-nahuel-attar","tag-nathan-catucci","tag-new-york-latino-film-festival","tag-stars","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14655"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14714,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14655\/revisions\/14714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}