Someone forgot to let 'Your Monster' out
HANDOUT
Yes, it’s better than “The Shape of Water,” as most movies and some headaches are. But the cross-species rom-com “Your Monster” gets stuck in narrative nowhere, trying to invest in its central relationship while staying removed from the substantial questions and situations that could result. Chemistry only gets you so far when a seemingly unconventional premise seems afraid of itself, or at least afraid to land as much more than a thin metaphor.
At times feeling like Seth Rogen’s take on “Beauty and the Beast,” writer-director Caroline Lindy’s feature debut finds Laura (Melissa Barrera of the rebooted “Scream” and “Abigail”) heartbroken and alone in her New York apartment after her musical theater writer-director boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) bails on her WHILE SHE’S BATTLING CANCER. Somehow still thinking that this guy’s not the worst — even when Jacob gives the part he wrote for Laura to kinda-famous Jackie (Meghann Fahy of “The White Lotus”) instead — Laura then stumbles upon a Monster (Tommy Dewey of “Saturday Night”) in her closet, which is not a euphemism. Apparently there’s been a monster there for much of her life, and he’s both annoyed that she’s never paid much attention and also a surprisingly cheeky, sorta appealing dude that can even emerge in the light of day on, well, Halloween and that’s it.
Say this for “Your Monster”: Barrera can really sing, and Laura and Monster (bummer he never gets a different name) do somewhat nudge their bickering into something like a connection. But Lindy’s mostly using this as background for Laura’s ability to act on her own behalf, a perfectly fine lesson but one that smothers a simple, predictable plot even further. There are too many cliches in place of characters (including Kayla Foster as Laura’s flighty best friend) and a sense that this story has been executed in the safest way possible, the whole bestiality thing notwithstanding.
Certainly “Your Monster” would take a different turn if Laura was more curious or the two further tested their bond in the outside world or we didn’t wind up in the same theater as countless other stories (from “All About Eve” to “Black Swan”) about ambitious performers. (Or comparable, funnier, smarter elements of “Big Mouth.”) Of all the Disney movies, “Beauty and the Beast” absolutely still deserves a modernization and a filmmaker that can be both fun and risky in handling the material. “Your Monster” has a couple good songs that aren’t close to carrying an entire album.
C
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