'Your Monster' is the film event of the year. (Spoiler-Free Review)

I don’t know what to say to get you to believe me - this film, if it is released this year, and if God is just and real, will be the biggest film of the year.

Theatre Kids, Actors, Film Buffs, Horror Fans, Rom Com fans, Melissa Barerra Fans - everybody. CLOCK IN.

This is the film event of the year - an actress on the cusp of being a major Hollywood Sensation, a Director that is about to be one of your favorites of all time, performances from actors up and down the billing that are some of the best of the year so far, and a tonal sensibility unlike anything else you have witnessed on Screen, like, ever.

IF YOU WANT TO BE A HIPSTER ABOUT ‘YOUR MONSTER’, YOU ARE LOSING PRECIOUS MINUTES RIGHT NOW, CLOCK. IN.

Music, Theatre, Stakes and Scenes

Something magical happened here. Under the clearly visionary eye of producer (and outstanding performer) Kayla Foster, a confluence of factors have merged, and, I believe, signal a shift in the landscape of Indie Filmmaking. Women in fucking film, y’all, we’re not going back.

I say visionary, because you have to be a special kind of person to see this story on the page, or even as a short, and understand it’s genius and it’s potential. “Your Monster” presents New York Broadway Theatre Kid Actress Performer Theatricality, by way of Scream Queen Camp Horror and Nora Ephron Tooth-rotting romance. It works because it’s all of these things - one element bounces off another to keep you up in the air, smiling and gasping throughout.

This is… a Thriller Comfort Movie. A Camp Modern Fairytale. A fever dream Theatre Kid fanfiction. It’s every color visible by the naked fucking eye.

And, I think, personally, if your film isn’t functioning on this level in 2024 and beyond…i’m not actually interested anymore. The bar has been raised, sorry, no more one-note filmmaking, pun intended.

The Cinematography

Director Caroline Lindy, working with Cinematographer Will Stone, in one fell swoop, has curated a vision here that might make her, already, one of my favourite directors of all time. Her pacing, both in story and visuals, is snappy, but infinitely detailed, and her comedic timing is just…I can’t even put it into words. There were moments I was legitimately stunned at how well she could turn the story on a fingertip and still keep me completely on board.

Through the whimsical but grounded visual style, she manages to suspend and yet cultivate your disbelief, all to the most satisfying end, and just when you think you’re on the train tracks home, the true ending starts to carve itself, and you realise you’re on dirt road, careering toward a cliff - in the best, most indulgent way.

The energy once the credits rolled was palpable - there was a sense of joy and relief, proper and complete catharsis, but also this jittery excitement, I’m guessing because we’d been able to witness this story before it undoubtedly became an indie/internet darling and plastered itself across the world and the hearts and minds of millions more people.

Not to pit filmmakers against each other, but the Surprise Film that same night was “Kinds of Kindness” (a piece on it is coming), and I couldn’t help feeling that Caroline, far earlier in her Features journey than Yorgos, had a far better grasp of Shock and Surprise, and a far more satisfying sense for it, too - not least of which because she seemed completely unified in her visual and semantic purpose - in English: she knew what she wanted to say, how she wanted to say it, and what visuals would get here there in the most evocative and beautiful way.

You’d think this was a prerequisite for high-level filmmaking, wouldn't you? A grasp of this? Anyway, a read of Yorgos is on its way.

I have no notes for Caroline, and neither will you, I promise. You're going to adore this. She is singular, and I cannot wait to be a lifelong fan of her work, and watch her dominate the industry with this singular sensibility. Audiences are thirsty for it, and Oh my God, they don’t even know yet! They don’t even know!

Melissa Barerra’s Performance

This is my first ever Melissa encounter, so forgive me if i’m late - but for her performance in this film alone, I believe we need to start talking about Academy Awards. Like, yesterday.

This film doesn’t work without Melissa’s unmatched charisma and internal strength of performance. She manages, through a very passive character, to be the emotionally expressive engine at the core of pulling the entire premise off, and having heard in the Q&A afterward that they shot this in less than a month (? 20 days, if I remember correctly?), I am in even bigger awe of how she managed this - no doubt aided by the script and the team, but a feat all the same. She is also heart-shatteringly and classically stunning, and yet completely unselfconscious. She is a dream to watch.

This film needs to sweep the Academy Awards in all areas, but if we’re just talking about Melissa’s role - if this performance gets overlooked, history will laugh very hard about it.

(I must add - I feel the same way about Kayla Foster and Meghann Fahy’s performances too - where have these women been hiding?? Why have I not been watching them in Oscar-Bait films for the last 10 years? Am I late? Am I the drama?)

And now, the work begins.

Ask your Local Cinema if they have plans to show the film, and if not, request it. Write it on the suggestions board, email, text, walk up to the counter when they’re not busy and talk to them about it, tell them you read this article and you’re desperate to see it.

Get your hands on a ticket, and then make sure everyone you know, who would love it, also gets their hands on a ticket.

Call the Theatre Nerds, buy out the cinema. Call the Horror Girls, tell them Melissa’s in it and it’s a subtle satire on and homage to the genre. Call the Rom Com girls, tell them the scary bits aren’t that scary (that’s coming from me, a self-professed Horror-cannot-do-er).

Call your ex, tell him to watch it, and then tell him the ex in the movie reminded you of him. Call your new boyfriend, make it date night, and tell him he reminds you of the Monster but in all the bad ways, and then laugh and say you’re joking. Call your group therapy pals, tell them it’s about processing your anger.

Literally everyone will love this.

Give the gift of ‘Your Monster’ this year, and i’m warning you now, see it early - because soon, everyone will be talking about it.