Your Monster is one wild, romantic, vengeful ride – Beauty and the Beast never looked so good. It’s about an aspiring actress who gets treated shamefully and then finds the most unlikely of awakenings.
Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) has been with her writer/director boyfriend Jacob Sullivan (Edmund Donovan) for five years. She’s helped him to develop his first Broadway show. In return, he promises her the lead role. Then she gets cancer. He dumps her and she’s distraught. After surgery, she returns to her mother’s home (only her mother isn’t there) and she is left to stew in her own misery. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a scary monster – known as Monster (an unrecognisable Tommy Dewey) – appears in her closet. He wants to kick her out of the house, but relents and allows her to stay for a fortnight, during which time the pair starts to bond.
Meanwhile, her ex casts the show she helped him create, but doesn’t even offer her an audition. Still in love with him, Laura turns up anyway and ends up accepting the role of understudy to the lead.
Monster rages at the way Jacob’s treating her and wants her to start standing up for herself. At the same time, Monster shows her another side of him, which is very much in tune with the arts. Their feelings for one another grow, as Jacob’s true colours are revealed.
Writer and director Caroline Lindy was inspired to create Your Monster by her own health and romantic crisis at the age of 24. First she made a short (2020) and now this film (her feature debut). She’s done a fine job. The result of which is a compelling, emotionally fraught, rom-com. Its main theme is about learning to stand up for yourself against arrogance and entitlement.
The cast have some wicked fun with their roles. With a mellifluous singing voice, Melissa Barrera (In the Heights) transitions beautifully from downtrodden to resolute. Tommy Dewey (Saturday Night), under heavy makeup, tones down his initial aggression to reveal his romantic side. He can be both devilish and debonaire. Edmund Donovan (Civil War) steps up as a narcissistic cad.
I loved the film’s nod to Hollywood’s Golden Age and the musicals of yesteryear. It marks an important turning point in the relationship between Laura and Monster, as does a scene in which he recites Shakespeare.
So there’s a lot to enjoy, appreciate and even sink your teeth into, in Your Monster.
Alex First
Other reviews you might enjoy:
Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.
