Your Monster (Movie)

An aspiring Broadway musical star (Melissa Barrera) taps into her inner anger with some help from the creature who lives in her closet.Caroline Lindy’s debut feature, “Your Monster,” claims to present a “true-ish story.” Presumably, the “true” aspect refers not to the monster, but to the cascading cruelty of the plot’s inciting breakup: While Laura (Melissa Barrera), an aspiring Broadway star, is recovering from cancer surgery, her boyfriend, Jacob (Edmund Donovan), a theater director, abandons her, then freezes her out of the lead in his new show, which she helped develop.Rather than exploding in a rage, Laura cries her eyes out in a montage that finds her repeatedly ordering boxes of tissue from Amazon. But there are strange thumps in the house, and she soon learns why: A monster (Tommy Dewey) who has lived in her closet since her childhood is still there and is, for a monster, pretty affable, eager to kick back with takeout and watch “Night of the Living Dead” on TV. With his brutish ways, he can also conveniently teach Laura the catharsis of smashing dinnerware.Monster — the only name he’s ever given — turns out to have an artsy side: He has a knack for Shakespeare and a thing for Fred Astaire movies. And he stands by warily when Laura takes a consolation role in her still-smarmy ex’s ensemble.Inner anger, watchful protector, possible love interest? Lindy’s monster won’t win points for metaphorical coherence. But “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.Your MonsterRated R for sex and violence. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters. More