Your Monster: Film Review
I had been dying to see Your Monster ever since it won the Audience Favourite Award at Sundance London back in June. Now that I have finally seen it, I can fully see why audiences loved this film so much.
This genre mash-up stars Melissa Barrera as Laura Franco, a struggling actress whose life falls apart when she is diagnosed with cancer and dumped by her playwright boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Sullivan) in short succession. To make matters worse, Jacob wrote a musical for her to star in and decided to recast the role and give it to famous actress Jackie Dennon (Meghann Fahy). A depressed Laura moves back home to her mother’s house and finds solace in the unnervingly charming monster (played by Tommy Dewey) in her closet.
Your Monster, written and directed by Caroline Lindy, cannot be easily placed within a genre. It’s mostly a romantic comedy but there’s also straight-up drama, a dollop of horror and a few musical numbers. And I love all of those genres! It shouldn’t work but Lindy easily manages to mix it all together without giving us tonal whiplash. The horror element could have gone further but that’s a minor quibble.
I was really impressed with Lindy’s script, particularly the smart dialogue, the characterisation of Laura and her relationship with Monster. Through Monster’s intervention, Laura evolves from being a depressed, snivelling mess to an assertive woman who stands up for herself. She is angry and frustrated and fed up with passively letting people walk all over her and Monster helps her channel her inner rage. Laura decides to get her own back on Jacob by playing Jackie’s understudy and it is deeply satisfying.
While Barrera is already known for her horror and musical work, she is relatively new to comedy. Your Monster proves that she has the comedy chops too because she is quite funny as the overdramatic and ever-crying Laura. She is captivating and you really root for Laura to get her revenge. She has a really cute relationship with Dewey. The Beauty and the Beast-style romance shouldn’t work but he’s so nice and charming that it’s believable.
Your Monster is an unusual and undefinable genre blend anchored by two well-matched stars in Barrera and Dewey.
In cinemas from Friday 29th November