Melissa Barrera in Unhinged Revenge Rom-Com

You’d have to forgive Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) for being a little out of sorts these days. In short order, she’s been: diagnosed with cancer, dumped by her douchebag boyfriend, undergone radical treatment, moved back into her childhood home (alone, her mother is, as ever, gone), realized said douchebag boyfriend has also absconded with the musical they wrote together (and given away the part literally made for her!), and discovered that the monster she thought she imagined in her youth is still very much alive and very much living in her closet (and played by the charming Tommy Dewey).

Filmmaker Caroline Lindy makes her feature directorial debut with “Your Monster,” but it’s a story she’s told before, both in life (Lindy herself went through many of Laura’s same travails, including the cancer diagnosis and treatment and the douchebag boyfriend who dumped her during the ordeal; good for her for finding the wherewithal to spin all of that into art) and on the screen (she’s expanded the feature from her 2020 short of the same name, which also starred Dewey as Monster).

Lindy’s passion for and connection to the material is obvious (how could it not be?), as is her desire to twist a sad story into something fresh and often funny. Sweet, even! But an unhinged final act, plus a jaw-dropper of a finale, seems at odds with everything else she’s revealed, and this genre-spanner goes from, well, spanning to something else: not being able to…