MONDAY

WhiteBalloonProductions

It's tough to review MONDAY as its director, because I can see all the seams. I see the compromises, the shots we didn’t get, the moments where the clock (both the literal one in the story and the production schedule) was louder than our resources. I see the performances that went exactly as I imagined — and the ones that surprised me into becoming something better than what was on the page. This film started as a question: What do people reveal about themselves when they think there’s no time left to be polite, strategic, or performative? Five minutes to the end of the world strips away a lot of pretense. Some people cling to denial. Some reach for connection. Some need to be right. And some just keep working the problem. I’m proud that MONDAY doesn’t try to make everyone likable. It lets people be human — messy, contradictory, occasionally irrational. The scientist at the center of the film is, to me, the quiet heart of it: exhausted, imperfect, and still trying. That feels honest to how real crises are handled — not by heroes with swelling music, but by tired people doing their best with limited time. If the film works, it’s because of the cast and crew who committed fully to a concept that lives or dies on tension and timing. If it doesn’t work for you, that’s fair too — it’s a film built on discomfort, and discomfort isn’t everyone’s favorite place to sit. Either way, MONDAY is a snapshot of what we could do in a constrained window, with big ideas and limited oxygen — metaphorically and otherwise. And maybe that’s fitting for a story about the end of the world. ~ Lisa Giles