‘Monuments’ Review: An Oddball Grief Comedy Blessed With More Charm Than Smarm

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Monuments review: A grieving widower's Colorado-to-Chicago road trip proves there's still some life — and death and afterlife — in the quirky indie dramedy

” schlepping his wife’s ashes around the geographical midpoint of the continental U.S.A. This dippily surreal existential comedy — imagine Quentin Dupieux engineering a head-on collision between “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” and “Little Miss Sunshine” — feels like it’s born of the exact middle ground between the big-budget escapist mainstream and the hardcore arthouse “coasts” of American cinematic output. It’s in a flyover state of mind.

As with any road movie, Newell’s fourth feature unfolds in episodes and interludes, but a non-chronological structure and David Burkart’s disruptive, gonzo editing keep things pacy and constantly refreshed. So as it begins, while Ted is already on his frazzled way to Chicago in a stolen truck with the ashes of his wife Laura in a battered pink lockbox on the passenger seat, he’s also remembering their relationship.

Ted, a lecturer in antiquities in the local college, has taken to carrying the ashes around with him, before Howl steals them from him, whereupon Ted steals them back, along with Howl’s truck. He has decided to spread the ashes in Chicago’s Field Museum, a place that meant a lot to both of them, but being the classically clueless, indie movie manchild that he is, not to mention having macho doofus Howl on his tail, Ted needs help.

 

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