REVIEW: Lisa Frankenstein [2024]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 101 minutes
Release Date: February 9th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Focus Features
Director(s): Zelda Williams
Writer(s): Diablo Cody

Your hair feels like Easter grass.

Lisa (Kathryn Newton) didn’t seek becoming the titular Lisa Frankenstein at the center of Zelda Williams film (written by Diablo Cody). It just happens that she frequented the grave of the soon-to-be resurrected corpse (Cole Sprouse) and thus made it so she would be the person he’d most feel safe with amidst the chaos of an unfamiliar 1980s suburbia. That she’s unafraid of death having survived the home invasion that killed her mother makes befriending him an easy sell. And working as a seamstress after school becomes her “doctor’s license” for if (or when) they find an ear and hand to make his body whole (with the help of a faulty tanning bed).

That’s not to say their relationship is one-way either. His presence as a sounding board becomes a catalyst for Lisa to break free from the shell that trauma and change (her father quickly remarried, uprooting them to another town for her senior year) built. She knows he won’t judge her and that’s rare these days. Because even though her affection is genuine, half-sister Taffy (Liza Soberano) can’t help but project an air of wanting to help her conform rather than be herself (being the daughter of Carla Gugino’s Janet guarantees some level of self-interest). And when Sprouse’s corpse eventually “saves” Lisa, the two become inseparable.

This is very much a Diablo Cody script for better and worse. It’s highly stylized in its 80s trappings (with Williams lending an off-kilter, just-left-of-reality Edward Scissorhands vibe to the town). Its characters epitomize stereotypical clichés in order to subvert them. And it’s never afraid to go to dark places for a laugh—if you’re willing to provide one. The pacing isn’t quite right and the whole drags in more than one section, but I really enjoyed the main cast and what they’re doing within that often-janky structure. Newton and Sprouse are great—cartoonish in their devilish actions yet honest in their emotions.

My favorite part, though, was Soberano. Whenever things start to go off-the-rails, her portrayal of unfettered positivity finds a way to ground things again with a warm sense of empathy that never feels forced. She’s a cheerleader at school, but also one in Lisa’s life—at a time when her father won’t even fill the role. Her Taffy is forced into some corners plot-wise so that the sex comedy promise of many jokes can be fulfilled with one last “surgery,” but Soberano plays it all straight so the stakes are never sacrificed by Lisa’s otherwise absurdly maniacal reactions to serious tragedies. Without her providing that contrast, the whole would fall apart.