"Your Monster" hops genres and tones to delightfully oddball effect

Your Monster (2024)

"Beauty and the Beast" meets "Drop Dead Fred" in writer-director Caroline Lindy’s darkly romantic fairy tale "Your Monster," but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a genre-hopping mélange of comedy, drama, horror, romance, revenge fantasy, and even musical theater, while also being an expansion of her short film and based on a “true-ish story.” What Lindy whips up is such a wild swing, a balancing act that should crumble at any moment but actually soars with excitingly unpredictable gumption. 

Melissa Barrera is sympathetic and charming as Laura, a Broadway actress who’s madly in love with her boyfriend of five years, stage writer-director Jacob (Edmund Donovan, making for a punchably handsome bastard). Just as she undergoes cancer treatment and surgery, Jacob breaks up with her at the hospital. Devastated and at her lowest point, Laura goes back to live in her childhood brownstone home, only to be reintroduced to Monster (Tommy Dewey), a hairy beast of a man living in her closet. He’s a needy roommate who likes sesame chicken and can recite Willy Shakespeare, but Monster also wants Laura out in two weeks. Along the way—with a little push from Monster—Laura works up the courage to try out for the lead role of Jacob’s show, considering they workshopped every scene and song together and he wrote the part for her. Will Laura stand up to the real monster?

As heightened (and erratic) as all of this may be, grounded human feelings are at the core of this tale of suppressed anger and self-love, making the rest of it matter. Barrera nails the heartbreak, anxiety and rage of Laura, and when the character finally stands up for herself, it feels like a much-needed exorcism. The role affords Barrera so many levels, giving Laura a full arc from timid to assertive, as well as the chance to sing beautifully, particularly in the show-stopping finale. Read the full review at GuyAtTheMovies.com

Grade: B

Vertical released "Your Monster" (102 min.) in theaters on October 25, 2024.