YOUR MONSTER
Starring: Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey
Director: Caroline Lindy
PAIGE
Your Monster is a silly but endearing rom-com about confronting your inner monsters and learning to stand up for yourself, and even though I am not the biggest Melissa Barrera fan, I must admit I found her performance quite lovely here. She and Tommy Dewey, aka the Monster, deliver such over-the-top yet somewhat grounded performances that they make for an incredibly compelling and relatable watch. The script is filled with some hilarious one-liners too, and it makes you want your own hairy monster to teach yourself about self-worth. This delightful gem would pair very well as a double feature with this year’s Lisa Frankenstein.
QUENTIN
While I can’t say I enjoyed everything about Your Monster (admittedly, I’m not really the target audience), it’s a surprisingly clever and warped twist on self-love and rom-coms. In a weird way, it’s Beauty and the Beast meets Venom on Broadway, featuring terrific chemistry between Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey (the film’s standout), a subversion of genre tropes, and incredible charm. There also are a couple of solid musical scenes, which aren’t my thing, but they’re there if you’re a fan, one of which leads to a satisfyingly dark and wickedly empowering ending. I know a lot of romantic horror-heads who will absolutely love this movie.
PRESTON
Your Monster is a modern day take on Beauty and the Beast with an interesting conceptual twist. Make no mistake, though…this is a certified “chick flick” with all the usual tropes. Despite the revealed meaning of the Monster, played very well by Tommy Dewey, the chemistry between him and Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) is muted. Instead, the Monster serves as a source of doting love and a stalwart defender of the protagonist, even in the face of humiliation and terrible decision making. It makes for an original but confusing mix of co-dependency and self-worth. The ending is cool, though!
