Your Monster

After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet. Filmmaker Caroline Lindy invites us into the wondrous and dazzling world of her debut feature, a genre-defying monster mash that’s equal parts twisted and romantic with a dash of musical whimsy. Melissa Barrera shines as Laura, capturing her ascent from pie-eating post-surgery doldrums to empowered theater stardom in which the sinister sides of herself are finally allowed to bubble freely to the surface. In Tommy Dewey, she finds a perfect match for her fantastical, unexpected monster — charming, witty, and dangerously likable. A welcome re-steering of the rom-com into darker realms, Your Monster encourages us all to liberate our inner demons. (Sundance Film Festival)