This New Romcom With a Scream Star Is a Perfect Pick for Fans of Beauty and the Beast
Monsters are not always terrifying.
Your Monster is the feature film debut of Caroline Lindy. It premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. For Lindy, the story is personal. It was the disappointing combination of a terrible diagnosis and a broken heart that led her to pick up a camera and confront her own monsters.
The result is a bizarre movie with a series of multi-genre signs. Your Monster grew on comedy soil and enters other territories, always laughing.
What Is Your Monster About?
Young actress Laura has fallen apart, although recently her life was full of great hopes: an upcoming premiere on Broadway, a loving director boyfriend and the lead role in a musical written especially for her. But a sudden diagnosis of cancer has disrupted her plans.
Now she faces long tests, surgery, and a lover who runs away from problems. The crushed girl returns to her mother's house. Only her mother is on an endless vacation, so the girl is greeted only by boxes of cookies.
Lonely Laura cries day after day, when suddenly it turns out that she does not live alone. A hairy Monster lives in the closet with the clothes and is not happy with the unexpected neighbors.
Your Monster Is a Curious Take on the Beauty and the Beast Trope
The Beauty and the Beast-style love story here has a number of twists and turns. The long-haired, bearded hunk, half rocker, half biker, is not a fairy tale character, but comes from the main character's childhood.
Long ago, when her mother came home late, the Monster from the closet was right there. But the Monster, created out of loneliness and fear, has developed a surprisingly healthy outlook on life. Now, instead of scaring, he gives therapeutic advice and fights toxic patterns in Laura's behavior.
Your Monster Resembles The Substance, but Treats the Main Topic Differently
Naughty heroines are appearing more and more often on our screens, spewing their accumulated energy into the world. But if Coralie Farge's The Substance is a biting satire, Lindy's flick does not go beyond witty irony.
These two films, different in intonation, style, and material, ask similar questions, even if they answer them differently. Lindy's film carefully picks up the main character piece by piece, allowing her to cope with depression and reclaim a forgotten part of herself.
Your Monster resembles Frankenstein's creation, but in a fluffy sweater. A warm and humorous film about self-love, it warns that inner monsters should not be locked away in the closet for long.