350: Lisa Frankenstein

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, please make sure to go ahead and rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks.

[00:00:06] 58. Let's get to Lisa Frankenstein which is now on demand. It's directed by Zelda Williams

[00:00:15] who's pretty new I think. And it's written by Diablo Kodu who also wrote Juno, Young Adult,

[00:00:22] Jennifer's Body, and a few others. It stars Katherine Newton, Liza Soborano,

[00:00:29] Jenna Davis, Luke Sexton, and a few others. And the synopsis is a coming of rage love story

[00:00:38] about a teenager and her crush who happens to be a corpse. After a set of horrific circumstances

[00:00:44] bring him back to life, the tomb bark on a journey to find love, happiness, and a few

[00:00:48] missing body parts. So I've been a big fan of Diablo Kodu since Juno. I love Juno,

[00:00:55] I love Young Adult, Jennifer's Body, and there's a couple others that she's done that I can't remember

[00:00:59] offhand but she I think is a very unique voice and I'm happy that she's still

[00:01:04] writing original scripts. I think she's very very original. And when I heard about this one

[00:01:11] I was interested. I don't know if the idea totally hooked me or like wowed me

[00:01:16] but I was definitely going to watch it for Diablo Kodi's writing.

[00:01:20] And I just got around to seeing it in the last few days. And overall I think

[00:01:26] as some are saying at least on Letterboxed, it definitely has cult classic vibes for sure.

[00:01:31] Like I think it'll grow on people over time and it'll have a shelf life at least that's what

[00:01:36] I predict. But I think I did like the movie a decent bit but I don't think I liked it as

[00:01:44] much as I wanted to. And as much as maybe some people seem to, I found the tone of it to be a bit

[00:01:52] mixed and a little unfocused like sometimes I was like alright what are we trying to present here?

[00:01:57] Is it like a weird coming of age love story? Is it self aware? Is it not always supposed to be

[00:02:04] trying to empathize or sympathize with these characters? Are we like is it meant to be

[00:02:08] really really funny and over the top? I think tonally it was at times perfect but at other times not

[00:02:15] and it was just off. And I think overall the movie does feel a little inconsistent in that way.

[00:02:20] Like it wasn't as funny as I think Diablo Kodi's other films are at least some of them. It's not

[00:02:26] as creative I guess. And maybe that comes down more so to direction like maybe she wasn't the

[00:02:33] right person to direct this. Zelda Williams that is and getting someone more experienced might be able

[00:02:39] to handle the variety of Kodi's writing. I'm not sure that's just shot in the dark but it's still

[00:02:46] very unique in a lot of ways and the weird gothic Frankenstein love story is interesting and

[00:02:53] compelling and entertaining. And I think Catherine Newton is excellent in that role and the physical

[00:03:00] comedy with the Frankenstein character is very enjoyable. It looks really good the color palette,

[00:03:06] the neon lighting, the costumes of Catherine Newton who sort of turns into a sort of modern

[00:03:13] version of Winona Ryder's character from Beetlejuice that kind of thing and Diablo Kodi pretty much

[00:03:21] always writes about high school outcasts like Juno gets pregnant, Jennifer's body she becomes

[00:03:28] vampire. Young adult even is about Charlie Saren's character writing about high school

[00:03:34] and then this is the same thing where people think very suspiciously of Catherine Newton's

[00:03:41] character and then people start to go missing and I won't spoil too much because there are some

[00:03:46] pretty wacky twists but it is a wild movie like for better and for worse it is very different

[00:03:52] than most of what comes out these days so I appreciate that it definitely has some 80s vibes

[00:03:57] it has a good soundtrack but I just wanted to love the movie more throughout than I was like

[00:04:04] some moments got me some things hooked me it made me laugh but I was like never fully in

[00:04:10] love with this movie and I think maybe some people are but I was a little in the gray area

[00:04:17] I guess middle of the road area but still worth watching for sure if you like anything in that

[00:04:23] vein any of those genres and if you just want something sort of wacky and original do check it

[00:04:28] out it's got some great moments and some good gore as well and I'm hoping Diablo Kodi continues

[00:04:35] to write because I love her scripts so that one is a three and a half out of five