It’s been six years since Tully, Diablo Cody’s last contribution to film, was released. I’ve unofficially knighted it as the third installation of Cody’s coming-of-age trilogy, also roping in Juno and Young Adult as the connected dots of emotional growth (or the lack thereof) for women of a certain age. It might be premature to have concluded a series for a person who hasn’t announced retirement, but in the case of her most recent project, Lisa Frankenstein, I’m not sure where Cody goes from here.
The film is a macabre, candy-colored homage to the ’80s, and that’s to say it includes everything that one might remember from that decade: fashion and misogyny, then-trends and now-tropes, zingers and misinformation about mental health. Using references like Edward Scissorhands and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! for aesthetics, director Zelda Williams creates a self-aware atmosphere in which the characters are breathing in the air (and hairspray) of this era while sometimes winking at us every so often. Kathryn Newton especially rises to the occasion as the titular Lisa, a high school student who experiences selective mutism following her mother’s death. Though the death, in which she hears her mother being fatally hacked by an axe murderer while hiding in a closet, plays to a specific thing about slasher films, I couldn’t help but already be in my feels that this is going to be sad. And perhaps Lisa Frankenstein is a wayward piece in the way that Jennifer’s Body was, where Megan Fox’s character was manipulated by her favorite band into being part of a Satanic sacrifice, only to wrong-but-rightfully feed off boys. Or perhaps similarly to Williams’ loss of her legendary comedian father; the events that follow Lisa seem to be part of the lightened, benevolent perspective that people might need toward life in the heightened time of grief.
In this case, therapeutic intervention takes place in the form of The Creature (Cole Sprouse). During a storm, the body underneath a tombstone she frequents (and one that is hard to ignore, as it is a large bust that presumes a tragic young model) becomes reanimated. He stalks up to Lisa’s bedroom and grunt-demands for an ear and hand replacement, the most ostensible parts that seem to have decayed in the centuries of being six feet under. His inability to talk engages Lisa into supporting one-sided conversations and thinking out loud on what to do with the strange body standing in her room.
Because I believe in Cody’s greats, it’s disappointing when she veers towards the glam-schlocky monster-and-girl route, in which The Creature murders someone and Lisa has to hide his tracks. While her mother’s death clouds over at certain parts of the film, it would have been fascinating to challenge Lisa’s character with something more than an escapade that loses substance by the end. One of the film’s biggest potentials was the relationship between Lisa and her popular stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano); despite their somewhat exaggerated differences in social status and interests, Taffy tries her darnedest to revive Lisa back into life (albeit what she thinks life should be like). Taffy is played like a bubble that bursts once the murders hit close to home, and at some point, it had seemed like Taffy and Lisa will finally see each other at eye level.
Instead, the plot slides down a twisted rainbow of murders akin to the body count of Jennifer’s Body, which arguably could be enough for those looking for a popcorn flick (though perhaps not colorful enough to warrant the Lisa Frank reference). Unlike the tangy or spicy profiles of Juno and Jennifer’s Body, Cody’s wordcraft in Lisa Frankenstein doesn’t have a strong flavor that lingers afterwards. I had no feelings or wishful thinking for The Creature throughout the film to feel one way or the other on wherever his character ended up. While Newton and Soberano go through the motions in sub-satirical earnest, their characters didn’t win any iconic moments and instead trip over the pitfalls of recycled references they are making fun of.
As alluded before, Lisa Frankenstein seems to put Cody, after a high of hits, at a standstill. But keen fans of Jennifer’s Body will note the misfire in the film’s marketing, which later found itself nestled in a late-millennial cult film. As Cody remarks, “[The resurgence] gave me the confidence to say, ‘You know what? I never lost my passion for that world and I want to do another one.’ So I’m here.” And being here and back with a film that starts with nostalgic notes of “The Promise” and climaxes in a weary “Wave of Mutilation” has to count for something.
Lisa Frankenstein
2024
dir. Zelda Williams
101 min.
Opens Friday, 2/9 in theaters everywhere
