My Corner

February 2024

I wanted to love Lisa Frankenstein. The premise alone had me rooting for it from the start. Goth girl in 1980s suburbia accidentally resurrects a Victorian corpse and falls in love? Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams? But somewhere between the stitched-together limbs and pastel lighting, the film never quite finds its heartbeat.

That said, Kathryn Newton is the best thing here. She absolutely throws herself into the role of Lisa with equal parts dreadful charm and unruly misfit. You believe she talks to gravestones and want her to find happiness (even when she casually dismembers someone to help her undead boyfriend.) Her look would win gold medals if goth were a competitive sport.

With as much certainty as I know Lisa Frankenstein could have been something great, I know Cole Sprouse could have been even better. That is…if he were given any actual lines. Yep, that’s right. Despite playing the film’s co-lead, Sprouse spends the entire movie moaning and groaning, which, as you can imagine, grows painfully old, painfully fast. Still, he has got the decayed makeup to counteract this.

Liza Soberano, however, is the real surprise. As Taffy, Lisa’s sunny cheerleader stepsister, she is refreshingly supportive, even when Lisa is dragging around a corpse in the garage. Soberano gives the film a much-needed emotional core.

My favorite part of the movie was the set design! Every inch of Lisa’s world looks like a goth zine exploded in technicolor. While ridiculously impractical, the movie does get every single visual right. Unfortunately, that’s about it.

Zelda Williams, in her feature debut, brings passion but not polish. Most of the scenes just kinda wander, and emotional beats often feel rushed or underdeveloped. The film swings between horror, comedy, and romance without ever committing to any of them. It hints at Heathers, Jennifer’s Body, and Edward Scissorhands, but never matches the sharpness, bite, or heart of any of those.

Cody’s script, which rumor has it is forbidden from rewrites, does have its moments. There are flashes of the wit and edge that made Juno and Young Adult sing. However, it is aggravating to see a creative who thrived in the early 2010’s refuse to adapt to modern times and remain stuck in the era where she was born.

I admire what Lisa Frankenstein wants to be. I wanted it to be that movie too. But instead of a bolt of electricity, it gets a static shock. A half-formed, half-hearted patchwork of ideas that never comes to life.