Lisa Frankenstein

It’s been quite some time since a movie has been sold as being written by Diablo Cody. True, she never stopped working after the promise of her Best Original Screenplay for Juno was dashed by the faceplant of sophomore effort Jennifer’s Body. She even kept working with notable directors, namely Johnathan Demme, Jason Reitman (twice), and penning her own directorial debut. But to the extent those works are thought of at all, they’re thought of as a product of their stars and directors. Which may point to what covered up her name: personalities more established and revered than herself.

But given the critical and popular re-evaluation of Jennifer’s Body in the late 2010s, which reclaimed it as both a feminist and queer text, she was due for a more visible second act. So it’s fitting she teamed up with a first time (feature) director Zelda Williams, and found in lead Kathryn Newton a rising star who’s been doing good work for a while but hasn’t quite had her breakout.

Together, the three crafted a rip-roaring fun time, a neon pastiche of classic Universal horror tropes and 1980s goth chic and rage against traditional family and cultural values. It engages coming-of-age themes (without cleanly slotting into the usual format), involving explorations of identity and romance and death. All the while employing a tremendous amount of energy and camp and style. Although I’m not sure they ultimately have anything all that profound to say, they sure go all out in saying it.

Newton plays Lisa Swallows, a quiet and reserved senior in high school, still processing the brutal murder of her mother (Jennifer Pierce Mathus) by a home invader less than a year ago. Being somewhat of a self-parody, she hangs out in the Bachelor Graveyard, quite taken with one particular young man’s bust. As the name of the film would lead you to guess, he comes to life due to a freak lightning storm, the mechanics of which the movie knows it need not bother with. Embodied wordlessly by Cole Sprouse, “The Creature” is missing some body parts, which he implores Lisa to help him…acquire. Thus, Lisa must juggle hiding him, fighting with her step-mom Janet (Carla Gugino), and trying to land her crush Michael (Henry Eikenberry).

From the very start, we’re confronted with some incredibly strong stylistic choices. The stark contrast between Lisa’s humongous and unruly 80s hair and the perfectly put together look of her stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano), combined with Taffy insisting on categorizing guys by their level of jock-ness, immediately signals we should expect the characters to be dominated by high school archetypes.

As such, the way to pull us in is to make all the characters BIG, to craft perfect stereotypes and then keep turning up the dial. In many ways, the world is grounded, it’s the characters who are absurd. From Janet cartoonishly harping on Lisa while treating Taffy as perfect, to her father Dale (Joe Chrest) being so passive he barely exists, to her boss at her clothing repair job commenting she has no friends because she has no boobs, to her classmates reacting with glee at hearing how her dad and stepmom got together almost as soon as her mom was murdered.

Lisa’s personality is the opposite, as we’re supposed to latch on to her as the relatable one, of course. Rather, her absurdity comes from how small and timid her response to everything is. Even her style of dress seems designed for stealth, despite her desperation to be noticed by boys (well, Michael).

As such, the thrust of her arc is how the appearance of this new fixture in her life drives her own identity to develop. Beforehand, her bedroom already belies a certain disconnected edginess and interest in the dark: Bauhaus, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, an anatomically accurate human heart, Day of the Dead on the TV, and so on. Classic film forms a particular touchstone of her identity: in addition, a spiked drink induces a hallucination of turning into the Bride of Frankenstein, and the film A Trip To the Moon plays a significant role in multiple sequences. As she gains confidence, she decides to take her school by storm in a bid to win Michael, and transforms into a Stylish Goth Princess. She spends the rest of the movie burning up the screen as an amalgam of pop culture goth royalty: Lydia Deetz and Wednesday Addams and Ally Sheedy and (perhaps most explicitly) Madonna.

The Creature symbolizes the male side of her personality and desires, implying a gender identity exploration read. Some of the key pieces of that interpretation are better experienced than explained, but the general theme being that despite their connection, they so often are performing complimentary actions. It’s her job to speak, his to commit acts of violence, hers to navigate the social landmines of school life, and his to listen. There’s a comment about how the penis is the least important part about being a guy. Hell, he literally lives in her closet!

Through all of this, the movie was constantly extracting laughs at just how bizarre and off-kilter and deliberately awkward every single character interaction is. These bits of humor came from all directions, from production design to plot details to callous comments to production design (tanning beds and worms, baby!). It’s rapid fire, and hits a truly shocking amount of the time. At least, if you share my sense of humor.

The film starts to get in its own way in the second half, when the focus on comedy gives way to the construction of emotional payoff. We’d been having so much fun in such an unorthodox manner that it barely occurred to me to consider what Williams’ endgame was. It never quite becomes solemn: how could it with the electric, Lisa Frank-esque production design? But it does become a bit more contemplative about life and love and the consequences of their actions. It doesn’t completely fall apart, owing to both the way its introspection resonates with the themes that have been there all along, as well as the good will it’s built up. But for a movie which has mostly eschewed direct earnestness in favor of a more ironic approach, that directness seems an awkward fit.

It also starts to muddle its message a bit, always a danger when you’re trying to tell a story at multiple levels all at once. They don’t completely collapse, but you sense the writing a bit more as Cody swerves away from disaster. It becomes clear that while the narrative has some depth, the tone of the proceedings went a long way to distracting you from the thinness of the plot itself.

It’s in this phase that some of the references to other bits of pop culture lose a bit of their magic. Again, not completely fumbled, they just become less clear. Most notably, I don’t quite get the heavy usage of A Trip To the Moon. Granted, its most famous sequence becomes the blueprint for some symbolic animation to keep Lisa Frankenstein PG-13. But without a strong thematic resonance to help it come through, it feels like Williams and Cody wanting to lean on film history in ways gotten across by the other posters.

All the actors here are doing a good job and having a better time, but no one more so than Kathryn Newton. She is absolutely hurling herself into this character, ripping off the guard rails and trusting her instincts will carry her through. It’s campy, it kinetic, it’s perfectly pitched to the movie she’s in. She’s chewing the hell out if the scenery, her line reads are bonkers in the exact right way, and her physical transformation once The Creature shows up is remarkable. Not just regarding the transition from cute weirdo to undeniable smokeshow, but in the way she carries herself with confidence and poise, literally standing up straighter and coming off more physically imposing despite her slight frame. There are basically two Newtons on screen, depending on what the scene calls for. The one we get is always the one which works most seamlessly, highlighting her command over flipping that switch. She’s a woman with something to prove, and god damn does she prove it!

I also want to call out Liza Soberano. While her role is relatively minor, she nails the right mix of aloof and earnest, of well-meaning if not adept at execution. Which sounds inconsequential, but plays an important role in wrapping up the plot threads later on. She’s also a delight, obviously not the stereotypical cheerleader character even as that identity is incredibly important to her. It appears she’s newer to movie acting than Newton or Sprouse, and I hope she continues getting work.

I haven’t seen a movie like this in theaters in quite some time. It’s A Wonderful Knife is the closest, but only in tone, not overall execution. Almost every full-throated attempt at knowing, B-movie camp is a huge miss, eliciting far more groans than chuckles. The key is that while Lisa Frankenstein is adopting the trappings of one, it’s not trying for “so bad it’s good”. They lean into cheese, yes, but then use that to construct a fun and cohesive world, and a simple yet energetic plot. A cast full of talented performers, or at least ones well cast to fit the requirements of the plot, lends it a ton of flexibility. And the production design gives us reason to search the screen for references or hints of what’s to come.

At the end of the day, I think the biggest factor is the script, which is rock solid. I owe Cody’s older films a rewatch (many a first watch), so I can’t comment on them confidently right now. What I can say is that her most recent is excellent, and validates the decision to put her name front and center in the trailer. I sincerely hope this puts us at the leading edge of a Diablo Cody resurgence. The world can always use to be just a little bit stranger.