Kelvin Harrison Jr. Will Break Your Heart in ‘Monster’ on Netflix

After premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival over three years ago, Monster is finally releasing on Netflix today. And the legal drama has arrived not a second too soon, because it’s high time the world caught on to the talent of Monster‘s lead actor, Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Not to be confused with the upcoming Ryan Murphy miniseries, the movie Monster is an adaption of the 1999 novel by Walter Dean Myers. Maybe you read the book in school: Protagonist Steve Harmon is a 17-year-old boy on trial for murder. He’s been accused of being involved in a fatal bodega robbery—others involved and witnesses say he was the lookout. The prosecution wants to label him a “monster.” Steve—an honor student and an aspiring filmmaker—says he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Just like the book, the film is structured around the trial and flashbacks. Voice-over narration from Steve combines first-person diary entries and third-person screenplay directions—pretty meta, considering you’re watching a film rather than reading a book. Not everything works, but the parts that do are usually thanks to Harrison, the 26-year-old actor who, before the pandemic hit, had been gaining momentum in his career.

Harrison has been working since 2013, ever since landing small roles in Ender’s Game and 12 Years a Slave. But he finally broke big in 2019 with leading roles in two critically acclaimed titles: Luce, a thriller that earned him a nomination for Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards, and Waves, an emotional romance that won him several “Breakthrough” actor and performance awards. COVID-19 put a halt to many productions and press tours, but if Monster is any indication, Harrison is back in action—and he’s just getting started.

At its core, Monster is a courtroom drama, and every courtroom drama needs a solid performance to succeed. (Incidentally, Harrison also gave a brief but memorable performance in another courtroom drama, as Fred Hampton in the Oscar-nominated The Trial of the Chicago 7.) Harrison delivers as Steve Harmon, particularly when it comes to the film’s voiceover. Voiceover is a tricky thing—it always teeters on the edge of cheesiness, and it doesn’t help that much of Steve’s inner monologue was written over 20 years ago in the novel. But Harrison is smart about it. He delivers Steve’s thoughts in a manner that is both subtle and firm—when he says this his story, “written, directed, and starring Steve Harmon,” we don’t hear a kid who is in agony, we hear a kid who has found his voice.

Harrison holds his own in his scenes with older, more established actors, too. Westworld‘s Jeffrey Wright plays Steve’s father, while singer Jennifer Hudson plays his mother, and through Harrison you sense Steve’s desperation to please his father, and his mortification when faced with appeasing his mother. In scenes with Tony-winning actor Jennifer Ehle, who plays his attorney, we get Steve’s unfiltered frustration and fear. Like most of the roles in Harrison’s career thus far, Monster is a fairly serious drama—but the brief moments of levity, seen in flashbacks to Steve and his girlfriend (Lovie Simone), suggest that Harrison would do well in a romantic comedy, too. But mostly, Harrison will break your heart, as he agonizes over a split-second decision that may forever define his life.

Coming up, Harrison will appear as B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann’s untitled Elvis Presley movie, and he’s also cast to appear alongside Haley Bennett, Brian Tyree Henry, and Ben Mendelsohn in a musical adaption of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac. In other words, you can expect big things to come from Kelvin Harrison Jr. He’s no monster—he’s a star.

Watch Monster on Netflix