An ingenious gambit of pandemic filmmaking turns the recording of a podcast into a remarkable, sci-fi thriller. Recently disgraced and desperate for a story, The Interviewer holes herself up in her parents’ luxurious home and gets to work on the only job she can get: hosting a clickbait investigative podcast. When she receives an anonymous email leading her to a retired housekeeper who claims her life has been destroyed by a strange black brick, the young journalist begins to convince herself of a conspiracy. Programmer's note: Adelaide revelation Monolith is a gem of genre ingenuity. Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) remarkably carries the film as its lone, isolated reporter, while director Matt Vesely’s precise, icy cold direction perfectly conveys a mounting sense of fear and anxiety. As podcasts continue to take over the culture, for better or worse – with their rabbit-hole structures and ASMR-inducing qualities – Monolith turns the format’s specificities into the unlikeliest of cinematic inspirations: bringing us close to the microphone…and into the great unknown. —Ariel Esteban Cayer NSW Premiere