Three mini-reviews: Your Monster, It's What's Inside, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Three mini-reviews: Your Monster, It's What's Inside, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Quick reviews of some of the movies I've been watching over the past weeks
Have I over-committed myself this month? Absolutely. I have an inbox filled with movies that I requested to watch and that I am genuinely excited to talk about. I have a few reviews at Loud & Clear Reviews coming in the following weeks, as well as a segment in this Halloween guide. For Your Consideration screeners are starting to arrive. I also have an essay that I need to write for a project that I’m involved with, which is both exciting and terrifying. All that to say, while I will continue to write full reviews here, today is another mini-review day. As FYC season gets fully underway, I think these will become regular parts of my schedule.
Your Monster (dir. Caroline Lindy)
If you liked Lisa Frankenstein but wished it was a musical, I have great news. Your Monster from writer and director Caroline Lindy does a great job of blending light horror, music, and comedy, with just a hint of horniness thrown in for good measure.
When Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) loses her boyfriend and the lead in the musical that he was writing and directing, she becomes an inconsolable mess. At her lowest moment, Monster (Tommy Dewey), who has been living in her closet her whole life, reveals himself and tells her that she has to leave. But as time passes, the two grow closer together, and Laura finds her voice wrapped in a roar.
This movie starts off rough. It felt like it needed to hit all of the rom-com and monster movie tropes so we really, really know what we’re watching. But once it gets rolling, Your Monster is a fun, sweet film. It never quite breaks into something completely unique, but there is enough here to make this a fun Halloween date night. Your Monster is in theaters this weekend.
It’s What’s Inside (dir. Greg Jardin)
It’s What’s Inside feels like a movie that flew under the radar when it was released on Netflix a few weeks ago. I think all of the attention that it might have garnered was lost to Nobody Wants This (check out Beth’s amazing panel discussion about that show), and while that is quite fun, I wish It’s What’s Inside hadn’t been completely overlooked. But spooky season isn’t quite over, so there’s definitely still time to catch this.
When Shelby (Brittany O’Grady) and Cyrus (James Morosini) go to an engagement party for their friend Reuben (Devon Terrell), they are struggling a bit with their relationship. As all of the college friends catch up, Forbes (David Thompson) shows up and brings with him a strange game that allows the players to switch bodies. At first, it is just a fun gag, but as the night goes on, things grow more intense, and the friends struggle with everything that is revealed when they change places.
This is a fun and clever movie. I do wish Jardin had pushed the boundaries a bit more with the body-swapping mechanic, but there are some interesting ideas presented about jealousy, regret, and attraction that are explored. Not one of the best horror films I’ve seen this year, but there are enough moments that make it worth putting on at home.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (dir. Benjamin Ree)
I have a group of friends online who are some of the dearest people to me. When my partner and I finally had a memorial service for our son, these were the people we had it with. There are still people in the group that I have never met in the real world. But they are deeply important to me, nevertheless.
Mats Steen had a degenerative muscular disease that restricted his ability to move, confining him to a wheelchair and eventually leaving him almost entirely immobile. His family was devastated because they thought that he would never be able to create meaningful relationships. But what they didn’t know was that he had cultivated a deep community through World of Warcraft and his character, Ibelin. When he passed away, they put a note on his blog, knowing only that he was on his computer a good bit. Following that, they received countless notes from the members of his guild, expressing their love for Mats.
This is a stunning documentary. Ree used archival footage of Ibelin, as well as combing through tens of thousands of pages of text to recreate his time in WoW. It is a beautiful reminder that the relationships that we foster online can be deeply meaningful and are worth celebrating. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin releases today on Netflix.
What are you planning to watch this weekend? Let me know in the comments!
I thought Tommy Dewey was really good as the wisecracking Monster -- I remember him from one of Hulu's first series, CASUAL with Michaela Watkins.