When was the last time we got a teen-centric movie that felt like an instant classic?<\/p>\n
Outside of this year\u2019s Sundance (which debuted the likes of Megan Park\u2019s \u201cMy Old Ass\u201d that you should look forward to), 2018 comes to mind as a quick answer, the year that gave us at least three (and very different) miraculous cinematic staples like \u201cThe Hate U Give,\u201d \u201cEighth Grade\u201d and \u201cBlockers.\u201d Or some might be inclined to throw \u201cBooksmart\u201d in there from the year after, too. One way or the other, let\u2019s agree that it\u2019s been a while.<\/p>\n
At least on paper, \u201cLisa Frankenstein\u201d promised a deliciously twisted flavor with the goods to finally become the next timeless teen flick on this side of the \u201820s. For starters, it\u2019s an intriguingly genre-bending horror-romance-comedy mash-up written by no other than Diablo Cody, a scribe peerlessly tuned into the feminine rhythms of both teenage girls and adult women (considering \u201cJuno\u201d and \u201cYoung Adult\u201d) with humor and insight, as well as the scribe of the fiendishly off-kilter flesh-and-blood pleasures of \u201cJennifer\u2019s Body.\u201d Then there is director Zelda Williams (the daughter of Robin Williams) making her feature debut, a talent raised in the world of comedy. And, finally, we have the wonderful Kathryn Newton (of the aforementioned \u201cBlockers\u201d) in the eponymous role, a reclusive, ’80s-era goth girl in Madonna outfits who falls in love with an uncanny creature from the grave and sassily goes off the deep end.<\/p>\n
Considering all these earthshattering assets at its disposal, it\u2019s such a bummer that \u201cLisa Frankenstein\u201d doesn\u2019t quite work on any level\u2014not as a comedy, or a coming-of-age flick, or an outlandish love story, leaving us craving for a lot more of each bloody dish it serves up. The blame should be split evenly between the script and direction here, with the former not pushing it boldly enough in any direction, and the latter merely matching the story\u2019s timidity on the screen with flat visuals lacking a sense of witchy magic.<\/p>\n
The tale follows the peculiarly named Lisa Swallows, a misfit who witnessed her mom get barbarically slayed by an ax murderer, only to see her dad get married to the intolerant Janet (Carla Gugino) in the tragedy\u2019s wake. Now, Lisa just spends her days avoiding her popular yet kindly cheerleader stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) and daydreaming at a nearby cemetery, wishing that she was with the dead occupant of her favorite grave decorated with an old-timey bust. When she makes that wish all too literally after suffering much cruelty in the hands of her school crush and her predatory lab partner, let\u2019s just say that the corpse misunderstands Lisa\u2019s bidding, abandoning his coffin to join her in the land of the living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When was the last time we got a teen-centric movie that felt like an instant classic? Outside of this year\u2019s Sundance (which debuted the likes of Megan Park\u2019s \u201cMy Old Ass\u201d that you should look forward to), 2018 comes to mind as a quick answer, the year that gave us at least three (and very …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[33,48,39],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-horror-movies","tag-comedy","tag-horror","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}