Monsters and Men review – black life and death in Brooklyn

Watch a trailer for Monsters and Men.

Reinaldo Marcus Green’s admirable but uneven triptych tackles the Black Lives Matter movement, following a trio of men in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, affected by a police shooting in their neighbourhood. There is young father Manny (Anthony Ramos), who captures the incident on his iPhone and uploads the footage to YouTube; Dennis (BlackKkKlansman’s John David Washington), a cop who is racially profiled himself, and high-school baseball star Zyrick (Kelvin Harrison Jr), who is compelled by the brutality to become an activist. Inevitably, some chapters work better than others but it’s an interesting, sideways look at how violence can serve as a catalyst rather than a climax and how it can change – and galvanise – a community.