Son of Monarchs

“An ease with bilingualism solidifies the Latino perspective of Son of Monarchs.”

Title: Son of Monarchs (2021) / Spanish: Hijo de monarcas
Director: Alexis Gambis 👨🏽🇫🇷🇺🇸
Writer: Alexis Gambis 👨🏽🇫🇷🇺🇸

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

—SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 2.5/5

As the adage goes, write what you know. And that’s exactly what biologist and filmmaker Alexis Gambis does in his sophomore film, Son of Monarchs.

The film recently enjoyed its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival and won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which recognizes portrayals of science in film. Drawing from Gambis’ own background, the French-Venezuelan director infuses his film with believable snapshots of everyday life for the main character of Mendel (Tenoch Huerta) who researches the genetics of monarch butterflies. Quotidian beats like visiting the lab or taking meetings at New York University all sing with attention to detail.

Unfortunately, the film’s impeccable world-building only makes up a small piece of the puzzle. The rest turns into a cacophony of impenetrable metaphors which seek to interrogate the human cognition: Animalistic rituals by a fire pit touch on trans-species psychology; close-ups on the psychedelic patterns of butterfly wings last much too long; and anxious, underwater dream sequences only add to the noise. Given so many threads to chase, nothing coheres. The end result is a narrative journey that flows about as smoothly as someone haphazardly learning to drive stick shift.

Not only do the abstract vignettes halt momentum, they also keep viewers at arms length from the protagonist of Mendel. Character development is abandoned for heavy-handed symbolism. In particular, the deluge of monarch butterfly iconography grows wearisome. During an early Día de los Muertos scene, Mendel describes butterflies as the souls of passed relatives. In his dreams, he grapples with the deaths of his parents and grandmother while covered in butterflies. He also studies monarch butterflies for work. And when it comes time for our protagonist to suffer a mid-movie crisis, he decides to get a tattoo of…well, of monarch wings. The ink he uses? Literally extracted from monarch wings and turned into orange colorant.

Such obvious devices weigh down its otherwise compelling core: a moving tale of a young man seeking to reconcile childhood trauma. I only wish the artifice could be swept away, leaving more space for its characters to reveal their true natures.

Gender: 2/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

The emotional heft of Son of Monarchs comes from the mysterious rift between Mendel and his older brother Simón (Noé Hernández). This male-centric story leaves so little room for women, Son of Monarchs never even pauses to pass the laughably easy Bechdel Test.

The most we see of any female character is Mendel’s girlfriend, Sarah (Alexia Rasmussen). She’s well sketched and feels modern given her career as a paralegal at Human Rights Watch. She even pursues a hobby of trapeze, which gives her ample opportunity to show off her athleticism. In a pleasant role-reversal of gender norms, her physical strength runs counter to Mendel’s brave but failed attempt at the sport himself. Yet her development ends there, cut short just as we’re first getting to know the woman. She soon becomes a disposable side piece to Mendel’s narrative.

At its most frustrating, Mendel becomes embroiled in his own angst and retreats into a shell, ghosting Sarah by ignoring her phone calls. When he finally deigns to have lunch with her, he’s obstinate and rude, barely making eye contact.

But of course, once he finally goes through with his internal transformation—symbolized by his new butterfly tattoo, because subtlety is not the movie’s strong suit—he suddenly decides he wants to be with her again. No time is devoted to their reconciliation and viewers never see Sarah get the apology she deserves. She simply reappears in Mendel’s life, the happy trophy girlfriend he receives for having triumphed on his personal journey.

Race: 5/5

The U.S.-Mexican production of Son of Monarchs centers a Latino perspective through Gambis’ Venezuelan heritage and the film’s Mexican setting, characters, and actors. An ease with bilingualism solidifies this as Mendel travels between New York City and Angangueo, code-switching depending on whether he’s talking to his white colleagues in English; using playful Spanglish with his NYC-based Latino friends; or conversing in Spanish with his Michoacano family members. Then Son of Monarchs goes the extra mile by casting Huerta in a leading role that leaves colorism in the dustbin.

As Andrew S. Vargas points out for Remezcla, “Huerta’s conspicuously dark skin is a rarity in Mexican media.” A glance at Huerta’s U.S. filmography also reveals some typecasting. Before playing a brooding scientist in Son of Monarchs, Huerta portrayed a stereotypical gang leader in Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Sin Nombre (2009) and a drug lord in Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico (2018). Depressingly, because this should be much more common than it is, it remains exciting to see brown actors play highly educated STEM workers. Mendel even gets the (white) girl in the end.

Mediaversity Grade: C 3.17/5

Son of Monarchs addresses laudable themes: Identity, migration, climate change, grief, and familial love all take their turns at the screen. But this game of roulette spins far too many options, leaving the viewer either dizzy or—more likely—simply bored by the excess of it all.

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Grade: CLiFebruary 8, 2021Great for: Race