A Brilliant Monster (2018)

“Where do the ideas come from?” It’s a standard question which, for many people working in the creative industries, there’s probably never a standard answer; however, in the new indie movie A Brilliant Monster, the trials and tribulations of continually coming up with workable new projects is given a dark, original twist. It’s an original idea about getting original ideas, if you will.

We begin with a man in what looks like Scenes of Crime protective garb, cleaning up an impounded vehicle with the air of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing. This is our first introduction to our main character, Mitch Stockridge (Dennis Friebe), who isn’t in fact in law enforcement, or clean-up operations – he’s actually a self-help guru, an esteemed popular author at the top of his game. So why the surreptitious spring clean? Well, according to his ex-girlfriend Sophie (Alea Figueroa), Mitch isn’t exactly the guy the world thinks he is. As a complainant to the police, she begins to spill details of what life with him was really like, claiming his participation in certain criminal acts. One of the investigators is a bit of a Mitch Stockridge fan, and simply can’t believe what he’s hearing, but co-investigator Abby (Joy Kigin) is a little more amenable to what Sophie has to say, and begins to pursue the case.

All of this soon begins to beg the question: just where does Mitch – a man deeply damaged by events in his childhood, according to Sophie – find all of this inspiration to help others? His books are popular – so popular, that people stop him on the streets to tell him how much he’s meant to them. Meanwhile, he has new writing projects on the horizon and deadlines to keep: as we gradually begin to hear more from Mitch himself, we get a sense of the very real pressures in his own life, from looking after his elderly father to keeping his publisher at bay. And yet somehow, he’s able to channel all of his own frustrations into something positive. How?

If I was expecting this to segue straight into a ‘good guy by day, killer by night’ routine, then I’m happy to say I was disappointed. The ways in which A Brilliant Monster tackles its theme of the creative process is rather more exploratory than that; as well as shifting tack quite early on to embed a surprise element, it also uses quite an ambitious framework, weaving in flashback from multiple points into real time and playing with lighting/shooting to create an impressive display of shooting styles. To an extent, the film’s own creative shift is hamstrung by its low budget, sure, but it opts for the right approach here, keeping things low-key and relying more on showing us the behaviour of people in these extraordinary circumstances than focusing on the use of effects.

This behaviour is refracted through an earthy, plausible script which generally works very well – a definite plus, given that this film really lives or dies by its dialogue. On occasion, the repetitive “where do you get the ideas?” line coming from different players can be a little excessive – A Brilliant Monster is capable of establishing its themes beyond doubt without this repetition – but otherwise, the script is good at balancing its touches of humour against moving the narrative forwards. Along the way, it asks some interesting questions and raises some interesting points. For example, the film shows how someone’s celebrity status can impair our judgement of them: the first cop on the case cannot really believe that a famous author could behave in a criminal way, later characters feel just the same way regardless of their backgrounds, and this certainty that status = irreproachable conduct is toyed with throughout the film. People are just seduced by Mitch’s fame; they can’t really see any further. But perhaps more tellingly, A Brilliant Monster looks at the grotesque side of the creative process: in this process, women seem to fare particularly badly (a grisly literal riff on the idea of the ‘muse’ maybe) but as the stakes get higher, Mitch is forced to make ever more difficult tactical decisions in return for what he needs as a writer. The relationship between him, his past, his purpose in writing and his inspiration are given an engaging treatment here.

Whilst I wasn’t quite ready to buy cop Abby’s immediate vendetta against Mitch Stockridge – though to be fair, this is contextualised later – this is only one weak link in what is otherwise an enjoyable, innovative tale about the pressures to create and the fallout of ‘success’. Making the central character a self-help guru is an inspired and tongue-in-cheek move; the grand divide between words and deeds is given a compelling twist in A Brilliant Monster, where what you see isn’t always what you get.

A Brilliant Monster is scheduled for release on 1st December 2018 (in the US).