By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 17, 2025)

Set in an economically depressed small town in Washington State, writer-director Titus Richard’s network narrative drama serves up a dollop of family angst and sprinkles it with lives of quiet desperation. Hovering somewhere between Peter Bogdanovch’s The Last Picture Show in its aspirations and Larry Clark’s Kids in its vibe, Monarch City suggests both; but due to an uneven script and scattershot approach, it unfortunately achieves neither. Richard does capture and sustain a “nowheresville” mood, and there are some earnest performances, but at 70 minutes and with this many players, there’s barely enough time for any kind of meaningful character development.