Lisa Frankenstein
Lisa Frankenstein is playing in theaters at the time of writing. Rated PG-13. Common Sense says 15.
STORY: D
A fabulous premise fizzles out after a strong start.
Watching this film’s focus flip back and forth is like watching two skittish cheetahs play tennis. Is it a slasher? A rom-com? Ultimately, it fails to find any narrative groove.
The filmmakers sew its plot points together haphazardly. This film resembles a story the same way that Frankenstein’s original monster resembles a human being: half story/man, half chaos.
PEOPLE: C+
The actors understand their assignment, even if that assignment is confusing as all get out.
Any negative criticism aimed at the actors would be unfair. Cole Sprouse’s physical performance works well within the film’s odd framework. Kathryn Newton fills Lisa with the fully accurate soul of a late-80s, angst-ridden teenager. But it’s Carla Gugino’s over the top performance that jibes perfectly with the film’s wavering and wonky tone.
FILM NERD STUFF: C
The opening credits set the bar too high for the rest of the movie to reach.
The opening credit sequence does a lot of work. Shadow puppets clearly reveal the Creature’s backstory while the opening theme plays. The names of the editor, costume designer, music supervisor (etc.) don’t pop up at random. The action and the filmmaker’s job blend gracefully (for example, the music supervisor’s name floats out of the piano). The use of shadow puppets also nicely foreshadows one member’s fate in the extremely icky climax.
With so much thought, care, and cleverness baked into the film’s first two minutes, it’s natural to expect more of the same throughout. Unfortunately, the film rarely reaches those heights again.
GET ME MAGELLAN ON THE PHONE, STAT! (Elective Class): D-
The movie shows no interest in exploring its premise’s possibilities.
An analogy:
Let’s say that you live near a restaurant with a killer menu. And let’s say that for a long stretch of time, you go there every night. And every night, you tell ‘em, “Gimme the chef’s special!” And every night, the chef’s special turns out to be a grilled cheese sandwich.
Now, I like grilled cheese sandwiches. It wouldn’t be a bad life, devouring a delicious one every night. But after a while, I’d be curious to see what else they could cook up. Wouldn’t you?
In addition to grilled cheese sandwiches, I also love jokes that compare the ways that modern dating advice can equally apply both to rotting, centuries-old corpses and to living, breathing humans. So do the filmmakers, obviously, since that’s pretty much all they do.
The filmmakers either have no clue what else they could do with their awesome idea for a movie, or they purposely choose not to explore it in any other way. I can’t help but wish they would have tried to whip up something else for us.
FINAL COMMENTS:
Lisa Frankenstein’s main issue is that it never figures out what it wants to be. To be fair, how many high school seniors do?
If you can embrace its messiness, you’ll enjoy this inventive take on the coming-of-age/rom-com genre. There are charms to be found in its chaos. But I, for one, was left hungry for something else.