A beast of conflicting genres, Your Monster gets trampled in the telling

Lindy has a deft hand at reproducing the look and feel of classic ‘90s rom-coms, utilizing a plethora of well-edited montages and choosing plenty of eclectic needledrops while warmly framing her leads. Unlike the year’s other uneven monster/human rom-com, Lisa Frankenstein, Your Monster’s crackles with plenty of laughs and a genuine connection. Laura and Monster’s odd couple schtick is remarkably charming because of the palpable chemistry between Barrera and Dewey, who spar with simmering heat and vulnerability. Watching them learn to cohabitate, then eventually like one another within the walls of their shared brownstone is juxtaposed well against Laura’s uphill battle at the musical, where she’s cast as the understudy for the part meant for her.

This unconventional romance also works because of the success of the prosthetics and makeup team in giving Dewey a handsome Beast look that allows for the nuance in his facial performance to come through. It makes all the difference in believing that these two species-crossed lonely hearts have enough common ground to have you root for Laura to stop chasing Jacob and look at the fuzzy prince charming living under the same roof. 

However, as soon as things get steamy, the script sidelines the beast to instead focus on the increasing melodrama happening to Laura during rehearsals at the theater. Lindy’s script crams in rekindled feelings, cast betrayals, and trite twists which devolve into cliched scenarios that aren’t half as engrossing as when Lindy was applying all of her rom-com magic to scenes between Barrera and Dewey. Even more disconcerting is Lindy’s decision to portray Jacob’s musical to a jarringly excessive degree. There’s no question that Barrera is a talented musical theater performer, and that Lindy goes all-in when it comes to showcasing her prowess in conveying passion through song. But the decision to serve up a compressed presentation of the entire first act of the musical is distractingly indulgent.

With less overwrought elements taking up valuable story space, Your Monster could have genuinely surprised and had something of consequence to say about the perils of suppressing your emotions. Instead, its ending pivot is a huge disappointment, one that leaves you imagining a version of Your Monster where the rom-com nirvana of Laura and Monster’s connection was still central, made sense, and played out to a more worthy conclusion.

Director: Caroline Lindy
Writer: Caroline Lindy
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster, Meghann Fahy
Release Date: October 25, 2024