I saw Your Monster at an advanced screening at the Regal Warren Theater in Broken Arrow, Okla. as they have a Monday Mystery Movie every week. For $5, you can see a movie about to be released later that week or month. But they won’t tell you what it is. I was skeptical going in. But this movie is R-rated so I thought at least I won’t find myself watching some kids movie.
Besides, if I don’t like it, I can get up and walk out. I have never done that. I’ve stopped watching movies on streaming and DVD/video. Yet, I’ve never disliked a movie so much that I had to walk out because I couldn’t watch another minute. And I’ve seen some bad movies too. Spaced Invaders is my Kangaroo Jack as they added dialogue in the commercials that wasn’t in the movie. Yet, I didn’t leave. Normally, I know a little bit about the movie I’m going to see. But this was like playing a movie game of Russian Roulette.
From the moment, I heard the cheery music, I knew it was going to be a movie I could sit through at least once. And once I saw the title, I grabbed my phone and did a quick Google search. Basically, Your Monster is a cross between Drop Dead Fred and Beauty and the Beast if that can give you any context.
Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) is a New York City-based actress (who lives in one helluva nice brownstone) who has just gotten over surgery for cancer (that is never really explained.) She’s also been dumped by her narcissistic boyfriend, Jacob (Emond Jacobson), who says he can’t deal with her illness after five years in a relationship. He also has written a musical that he is directing for the first time on Broadway.
Laura’s friend, Mazie (Kayla Foster), appears supportive but mostly ditches her when Laura needs her the most. There’s a gag where Laura orders tissues from Amazon three times and asks the deliveryman for a hug. Depressed and going through about a dozen pies people have given her, she starts hearing strange noises, like a thump upstairs.
When she goes to see what it is, a bipedal hairy humanoid creature appears before her. Going by Monster (Tommy Dewey), he appears more friendly than one might expect. When Laura faints, he carries her downstairs to the couch and makes tea for her. Monster explains he’s followed Laura from her childhood home to her current home, which he likes, and wants her to move out very soon or else.
Eventually they get friendly as Monster encourages Laura to go to the audition for Jacob’s musical even though she doesn’t have an appointment. She does badly and the role of Laurie, the lead, goes to TV actress, Jackie Dennon (Meghann Fahy), who Jacob gets close to. However, Jackie is oblivious to the tension or at least the source of the friction between Jacob and Laura. She’s friendly with Laura as Jacob makes her Jackie’s understudy.
And of course, Laura gets closer to Monster, who becomes the one she can turn to the most. Caroline Lindy, who wrote and directed the movie from a short story she wrote, seems to be rebelling against tropes. I’ve seen where some say this is an “anti-romcom.” But it’s also considered a horror movie. Yet, I’d say it’s more like black comedy. Monster never does looking really than hideous. He really looks no different than when Ron Perlman played the Beast in the 1980s TV show Beauty and the Beast.
Also, Monster is written kind of to be a wise-cracking with a profane mouth. I feel that Lindy was hoping for maybe Ryan Reynolds type. But Dewey manages to handle the banter very well with Barrera. This movie is R-rated for a reason as Laura and Monster let the profanities fly. In many ways, it seems like a parody of the romcom genre especially those by Nancy Meyers where mostly white people live in very nice affluent neighborhoods. Barrera is from Mexico.
Toward the second half of the movie, it turns into more of a musical as Laura, Jackie and Mazie all rehearse with Jacob for the musical. Barrera was also in the uneven musical In the Heights where she showed her singing voice. She shows off her great talents. Earlier this year, Melissa Barrera was reportedly fired from a proposed Scream 7 over some pro-Palestine posts online. Well, I support Palestine too, as well as Isreal. Pro-Palestine doesn’t mean Pro-Hamas.
But Your Monster has also received great reviews from critics following success on the film festival circuit where it won the Audience Favorite Award at the Sundance Film Festival. So, maybe Barrera doesn’t need the franchise. Or she’ll become more popular and they’ll offer her more money to come back. Sitting through the movie, I realized this was what Lisa Frankenstein should’ve been but that movie got bogged down by Diablo Cody’s pretentiousness. And I’ve had three friends who all have different tastes tell me to avoid the Beetlejuice sequel until it comes out on streaming or DVD.
Your Monster promotes it’s based on a “Trueish” story. Lindy has said when she was 23, she had an illness that resulted in a hemicolectomy, where part of the large intestine is removed. Her boyfriend dumped her and she became depression. Then, it turned into rage and fury. It does turn a little darker in the final act as we really see what kind of an awful person that Jacob is (and probably has been but Laura didn’t want to admit it.) But that’s to be expect.
I liked how the character of Jackie doesn’t turn into the obligatory “New Girl” baddie which is often the stereotype written by men. Jackie is actually a very good character unknowingly thrust into the middle of an issue she didn’t know about and doesn’t want any part of. Also, Barrera has a powerful scene that can only be written by a person like Lindy who has, herself, experienced the same thing.
I liked it. I could sit through it again, just not anytime soon. But as it’s set to open this weekend, I would recommend you go see it.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 