Monster

Steve Harmon is a seventeen-year-old student in Harlem with a talent for filmmaking, someone who prefers to observe his neighbourhood through a camera rather than get caught up in its difficulties. His life is overturned when he is arrested and charged with felony murder, accused of acting as a lookout in an armed robbery of a bodega that ended in a killing. He insists he had no part in it, but the prosecution paints him as a monster, and he must fight to clear his name before a justice system that treats him as already guilty. His parents stand by him while his lawyer builds a defence.

Anthony Mandler directed the film, which came after his earlier National Anthem and Happiness Continues and before Surrounded. The screenplay is credited to Janece Shaffer, Colen C. Wiley and Radha Blank. Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Steve, with Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson as his parents, Jennifer Ehle as his lawyer, and Tim Blake Nelson and John David Washington in supporting roles. The production involved thirty-one credited cast members and forty credited crew.

Released in July 2021 and running 98 minutes, the film drew a mixed response. Its critics' rating of 6.2 out of 10 across 68 reviews sits close to the audience scores of 6.5 on IMDb from around 7,100 votes and 6.4 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes, suggesting critics and viewers judged it in similar terms.