Tracker Pixel for Entry

​Lindy seeks love and romance with ‘Your Monster’

Cinema | October 28th, 2024

By Greg Carlson

gregcarlson1@gmail.com

Caroline Lindy expands her short film “Your Monster” to feature length with mixed results. The movie premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival in January, but makes for a thematically appropriate Halloween season experience for romantics and theater kids seeking a not-too-scary fantasy. Despite the somewhat exaggerated and limiting appellation tagging her as a new “scream queen,” star Melissa Barrera comfortably steps into the role originally played by Kimiko Glenn. As Monster, Tommy Dewey reprises his beastly beau. The actor can also be seen portraying Michael O’Donoghue in Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” currently in theaters.

Lindy’s script swings for more comedy than horror in the tale of Barrera’s Laura, a young cancer survivor whose long relationship with aspiring director/composer Jacob (Edmund Donovan) comes to a close just as the musical she helped him conceive makes its way to the stage. Without an offer to play the role originally written for her, Laura accepts a spot in the chorus. Meanwhile, Laura gets reacquainted with the creature who inhabited her closet and slept under her bed when she moves back to her childhood home. Laura and Monster both want to claim the living space, but soon enough they start to behave like an adorable couple, arguing over the thermostat and sharing Chinese takeout.

Monster’s leonine profile and flowing locks resemble forerunners Jean Marais and Ron Perlman enough to confirm Lindy’s “Beauty and the Beast” inspiration, but the filmmaker elects not to answer the question that wonders whether Monster is only a metaphoric representation of Laura’s uninhibited and unfiltered id or a genuine, flesh and blood brute. It is entirely possible, of course, to read Laura’s budding romance with her hairy roommate as an ode to self-love (if not masturbation), and given Lindy’s tongue-in-cheek tone and the interweaving of the film’s two primary storylines during the violent premiere-night finale of Jacob’s show, open-minded viewers will get into Lindy’s groove.

The counter-argument is that “Your Monster” sticks too close to the one-thing-at-a-time formula, a liability that allows viewers to get ahead of the plot points. A case can be made that the movie could readily sustain more business via subplots with key supporting characters. Fans of Graham Mason’s brilliant 2020 comedy “Inspector Ike” will perk up every single time that Ikechukwu Ufomadu appears as stage manager Don. I began mentally begging Lindy to include more scenes with the actor and for “Your Monster” to take the kind of bold creative risks and sharp left turns maximized in “Ike.” For a movie with a premise in which someone falls in love with their freakish and frightful closet occupier, Lindy could use a lot more weirdness.

Despite its shortcomings, “Your Monster” will find admirers among the legion of misfit drama kids for whom the story is presented as a love song. Near the beginning of the movie, some inconsiderate patrons in the screening I attended exclaimed, “If this is a musical, we are out of here,” but anyone who has ever been involved with a theatrical production can easily see Lindy’s affinity for and understanding of that world. And Barerra, dressed throughout by costume designer Matthew Simonelli in cozy sweaters, jumpers, and jammies, elevates the material with a tone that balances her characterization right on the line between too much and not enough.         

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com Ten North Dakota communities will participate in the nationwide No Kings Day of Peaceful Action on October 18. The grassroots movement is a nonviolent protest against President Trump’s…

By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.edu I would like to recognize some of the scholarly Germans from Russia from Canada and USA shared on the GRHC website. There are additional names not included here. If you have suggestions…

Friday, October 31, doors 8 p.m. show starts at 8:30 p.m.The Aquarium above Dempey’s, 226 N. Broadway, FargoThe annual Aquarium Halloween Cover Show is back and it is stacked. And this time there are a limited amount of presale…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com At the end of September, downtown Fargo said goodbye to another old friend; the Spirit Room closed its doors, marking the end of an era. The Spirit Room room has been a fixture downtown for the…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comThat old time religion, filled with love, is no longer good enough In the first “Inherit the Wind” movie about religion and evolution starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, the…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gion and Nichole Hensenrickgion@gmail.com The wait is finally over. Those who have visited Nichole’s Fine Pastry & Cafe lately know about the recent major additions and renovations that have taken place over the past…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Now available on Amazon Prime following its world premiere last month as the opening night selection of the Toronto International Film Festival’s golden anniversary, “John Candy: I Like…

By HPR staffsubmit@hpr1.com Mark the first weekend of October on your calendar. It’s the weekend of the Studio Crawl, which takes us all on a wonderful, metro-wide tour of our talented (and often wacky) arts community. On October…

Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com When we are sick, all we want is a cure. You go to the doctor, they give you a pill, you take it for a bit, then you are cured. It happens. But unfortunately, it is not always the case. …

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson@rocketmail.comMoral accountability and the crisis of leadership  As a recovering person living one day at a time for the last 35 years, I have learned not to judge others because I have not walked in…