Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

February 11, 2024 11:42 AM

[TRAILER] 80's teen misfit Lisa (Kathryn Newton) struggles with a new school and a new family when her dad remarries. She clashes with overbearing, Jazzercising stepmom (Carla Gugino) while her super-positive cheerleader stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) tries to change her social standing, but Lisa would rather spend her nights in a cemetery. Her favorite pastime: taking care of the grave of a pianist who died by suicide in 1837. After a deeply humiliating experience at a party, Lisa goes to her happy place and says the somewhat magical words, “I wish I was with you.” A few well-placed lightning bolts later, the mud-covered Victorian-era corpse (Cole Sprouse) is lumbering into her house, becoming the companion she needs, but also kicking off a murder spree.

Also starring Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest.

Directed by Zelda Williams. Written by Diablo Cody. Produced by Mason Novick, Diablo Cody for Focus Features. Cinematography by Paula Huidobro. Edited by Brad Turner. Music by Isabella Summers.

49% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now playing in theaters.

posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

The first third of this feels at least eight or ten minutes too long. It's like watching an assembly cut. Shots hold too long, sequences play out with unnecessary detail, music seems missing. It feels flabby and inert.

And then once they get past the Frankenstein riff and settle into something that's more like Heathers with a zombie boyfriend, it finds its rhythm and is fun the rest of the way through.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:43 AM on February 11 [1 favorite]

I was wondering where I’d heard Liza Soberano’s name before: this is her first American feature but she’s already had a career in Filipino TV and movies. I remembered her name because she was slotted to play Darna (a superheroine based on a Filipino comic book) in the recent series relaunch but had to leave due to reportedly breaking bones in her hand on an earlier project.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:52 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

I found this a fun movie, but I want to be careful about recommending it. You gotta weigh how much nostalgia you have for vintage Gen X culture (even if it's clever/meta, like giving Lisa a chance to say, "Dammit, Janet"), how much you like horror comedy, and what your tolerance is for teen movies before you decide whether to see this.

I had a blast, but this is mostly Cody fucking around. It doesn't have the satirical barbs and surprising depth her best work has. And I don't say that to downplay it, just to help people calibrate. Let a writer have a fun one. I certainly enjoyed it.

I'd say that if the trailer would look fun to you even if it weren't a Diablo Cody script, go for it. If it didn't, and you were only curious because it's the writer of Juno and Young Adult, I would give pause.

Also: Zelda Williams is that Zelda Williams. She's Robin Williams' daughter.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:40 PM on February 12 [2 favorites]

I mis-read this as being about the neon-loving designer Lisa Frank, and the synopsis really confused me.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:34 PM on February 14 [2 favorites]

My hilarious, savage kid: This would be more period-accurate and horrible if when the guy from a century plus ago regained the ability to speak he was like, super, super racist.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:35 PM on February 14 [3 favorites]

As a debut feature for Zelda Williams, it's very promising and I hope to see more from her in the future. As a Diablo Cody movie, it's arguably a more simplistic version of what she and Karyn Kusama pulled off with Jennifer's Body 15 years ago.

For me, the whole enterprise was justified by the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation" needle-drop towards the end, which was perfect; I feel like whatever its final box office numbers are, like Jennifer's Body it'll find a belated cult following on streaming.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:52 AM on February 19 [2 favorites]

While I liked the soundtrack and the axed off penis to the strains of a power ballad was definitely a worthwhile choice, aside from that I felt deeply meh about this film, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to this one.
posted by miss-lapin at 12:40 AM on March 2

With all the axe use I was expecting the death of Lisa's mom to tie back in somehow.

That and I thought the final reveal would involve the classic Bride of Frankenstein hairdo
posted by ckape at 9:49 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

There's a conversation in this film about being seduced by death (it feels like?). I say that from the perspective that Lisa is someone grappling with the violent death of her mother. We learn that it was so traumatizing she barely spoke for two months (or so we're told, may be untrustworthy narration there). She finds solace in going to an overgrown cemetery, a place where death has been forgotten, and that seems reflective toward part of her statement later in the film where she complains about how everyone is in a hurry to get over someone's death. They want to move on.

Lisa is fixated on death. When she embraces Victor's presence, which could be described as embracing the idea of death, she starts wearing black (funeral) clothing on a regular basis. But it's this acceptance of death, which she says everyone else is afraid of (not Lisa, she's not afraid of Victor) is when she begins to fully become happy with who she is. That, in turn, runs against everyone else's expectations, and it's how death adopts, improves, vis a vis the death and incorporation of everyone who creates stress, anger, and fear in her life. Her step mom who refuses to listen to her provides an ear (which, I'm kind of sad that her step sister never got to see with the diamond stud). The high school lab partner who sexually accosted her with his hand, provides said hand. With each offending piece of anatomy that is liberated and added to Victor, the happier Lisa becomes and more real death is.

It culminates with the literary guy's penis, which she saw as something that was supposed to be special by way of him being her first physical sexual encounter. Once Victor/Death has it, that is, Lisa can claim that this desire/idea is repossessed from the situation before, he becomes pretty much 100%. Once she has fully embraced death, she then dies (but through our magic tanning bed, lives again!). There's no going on the lam with her living dead boyfriend, but one final step, death, itself, like a marital consummation to finish Lisa's story.

Is it a suicide story? At a blush, it almost feels like it, like the journey of someone who is devastated by loss and by only coming to terms that death is the answer, can become happy. But, the fact that the movie ends with her alive would say no, this isn't necessarily about death. The ending kind of connects to the beginning with Lisa reclining below/against Victor (Victor's headstone) as a place of happiness.

In the end, I really enjoyed the film, but was distracted part of the time from feeling like it was trying to say something that I, be it my own life experiences, or lack thereof, couldn't 100% point to it and go, "I get this. I totally get this."

Side note, I didn't realize Cole Sprouse (Jughead?!) was Victor until all the make up was mostly gone from his face.
posted by Atreides at 1:23 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]