Monica

Monica is beautifully acted, not least in the play-off between Clarkson — alternating weary spikiness with bursts of agonised distress — and the gentle, detached reserve that is Lysette’s main register here.

A film of quiet but considerable power.

Lysette’s committed, complex performance, in tandem with Clarkson, powers a restrained tale of reunion and resistance with a gender identity twist.

Monica is moody, slow-moving and stronger on style than characterization, yet Lysette and Clarkson endow it with feeling.

Monica is an intimate look at the complexity of grief, reconciliation and family.

A quiet, heartfelt, and beautifully nuanced drama that feels unique and universal.

a [Trace] Lysette performance that we should be considering as one of the greatest performances put to film in recent years

It may not be the snappiest film in the world, but what it lacks in haste it makes up for in characterisation. Though we spend a good portion watching the family simply function by itself, Lysette has anchored this film with a giant beating heart.

Such emphasis on the unspoken makes Monica a welcome reprieve from the type of standard-issue dramas that might bake in showy confrontations and cathartic exhalations.

This is what watching independent film in particular, and cinema in general, is all about. I saw this movie early in the year and it has stuck with me, and even improved with time.