Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

A Monster Calls (2016)

Conor: Your stories never made sense to me.

The Monster: Because humans are complicated beasts. 

You believe comforting lies, while knowing full well 

the painful truth that makes those lies necessary. 

In the end, Conor, it is not important what you think. 

It is only important what you do.

Conor: So what do I do?

The Monster: What you did just now. You speak the truth.

Conor: That's all?

The Monster: You think it's easy? 

You were willing to die rather than speak it.

The wildly under-appreciated tearjerking kids masterpiece A Monster Calls came out five years ago today. Directed by J.A. Bayona -- a stepping stone in between the devastating family dramatics of his film The Impossible in 2012 and the gigantic special-effects spectacle of his Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom film in 2018 -- and scripted by Chaos Walking author Patrick Ness, who was adapting his own book (which I also highly recommend), this movie sort of disappeared into the ether when it got released in 2016 and well there was after all a lot going on in the fall of 2016, so I don't totally blame us for being a little distracted. But I hope it's gained some traction on our brains in the five years since! And if not, let's make a rediscovery of this one. It's devastatingly excellent, a fable about grief that will lift you up, slam you back down over and over until you're dizzy, and then hug you dead. It's grand!