Metacritic reviews

Lindy doesn't just make a fun genre mash-up of a film, blending together comedy, fantasy, romance, horror, and musical theatre, but uses the movie's genre elements to tell a subversively wicked story of suppressed emotions, and what can result when those feelings aren't kept behind a closet door.

Unabashedly silly, yet effectively sincere, it is a film that grows on you.

Full of affection for big Broadway-style tunes, with a heroine whose dream man is soft-hearted but also not human, it is a sharp, witty confection.

Your Monster is a magical movie experience you do not want to miss. A nice blend of levity and drama, Lindy’s debut assertively makes its mark on the genre.

Dewey is the highlight of the picture, offering both humor and pathos throughout while playing off Barrera nicely.

Your Monster, while falling short of the Critic’s Pick status that Jacob vociferously covets for his show, has its charms, namely the backstage intrigue, onstage songs by the Lazours (of the current Off Broadway musical “We Live in Cairo”), and a disarming lead in Barrera.

Melissa Barrera’s Laura may be full of rage, but the kind of monster she is doesn’t line up with where her rage leads her.

The film lacks the teeth to be an incisive takedown of romantic comedies — in truth, it works best at its sweetest. Dewey communicates a lifetime of longing in those soulful eyes that pop through Monster’s makeup, and Barrera brings an endearing amount of dorky energy. But whenever these characters leave the house, the problems start — both for their relationship and the film itself.

Lindy’s passion for and connection to the material is obvious (how could it not be?), as is her desire to twist a sad story into something fresh and often funny. Sweet, even! But an unhinged final act, plus a jaw-dropper of a finale, seems at odds with everything else she’s revealed, and this genre-spanner goes from, well, spanning to something else: not being able to hold onto any of its many spinning plates.

Mopey to a fault, with a missed opportunity for an ending, Your Monster amounts to an intermittently amusing, grubby-looking pity party.