Little Monsters Review

 NR Neon, Screen Australia, Made Up Stories, Protagonist Pictures, Snoot Entertainment1 Hr and 34 MinutesWriter/Dir: Abe ForsytheCast: Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Josh Gad, Diesel La Torraca, Charlie Whitley, Mason Mansour, Nadia Townsend, Kat Stewart   
  After a rough breakup, directionless Dave (Alexander England) crashes at his sister’s place and spends his days expanding his young nephew’s questionable vocabulary. When an opportunity arises to chaperone an upcoming school excursion alongside the charming and enigmatic teacher, Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), Dave jumps at the chance to impress her. What he wasn’t anticipating was Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad), an obnoxious children’s television personality who shapes the excursion’s activities. What he was expecting even less was a zombie invasion, which unfolds after an experiment at a nearby military base goes awry. Armed only with the resourcefulness of kindergartners, Dave, Miss Caroline, and Teddy must work together to keep the monsters at bay and carve a way out with their guts intact.  
  
Zombie flicks take many shapes and forms, especially when it comes to genre films. Oddly enough the most successful zombie movies happen to be comedies and they have their own distinctive atmosphere. Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters is another entry to that list. Given its absurd premise, the film relatively succeeds with its charm and screenplay. Most of the humor is raunchy, but mostly succeeds through the number of visual gags present. There are plenty laugh-out-loud moments that catch you off guard, and when they do they are effective. I love how these kids are young and innocent; it captures the adorable nature kids are making for more of the comedic elements to work contextually within the story.   How do you not start discussing the positive aspects of a film starring Lupita Nyong’o without praising how talented Lupita Nyong’o is? You just simply can’t. Nyong’o is amazing, that goes without saying. Whether it’s in dramas such as Queen of Katwe or action films such as Black Panther, Nyong’o just radiates with incredible performances throughout her career. Now, with Little Monsters being her first comedic role, she outstandly achieves every aspect required in the genre from her delivery and her timing. Every laugh-out-loud moment comes from the nature of her character, Miss Caroline, who is so dedicated to her job that in the midst of a zombie outbreak and the circumstances she has to deal with, she remains calm and expresses positivity for her students. Screw a Teacher of the Month award. She deserves a nobel peace prize the way her character maintains an upbeat nature despite the worst possible thing ever happening. When shits hits the fan and this outbreak occurs, Caroline keeps her composure and the visual humor of her happy nature. Plus, you have Lupita Nyong'o singing Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” which is something you don’t know you want to see until you see it. Hell, besides expressing a damn near expert comedic side, we even hear her singing voice, and she can SING! Like, you know when black mothers go, “my baby can SANG!”? I found myself saying that as she sings out nursery rhymes and lullabies in such a soothing voice. Now I just want a Lupita Nyong’o lullaby album. It’s what she deserves because she’s got a voice, which attests to the argument that Lupita Nyong’o is one of the most talented actresses working today and keeps surprising with each role. There’s even a sequence of her literally snapping and kicking ass and you’re just in awe of her. Forsythe has her do the most in accounts of range within her performance and she keeps taking it to a   
  Seriously, if an actress was described as perfection, it would be Lupita Nyong’o. The range she exhibits in this movie just proves —  
  Also, for a low budget zombie flick, the makeup for the zombies is impressive. It may not have a distinguished look because... well, they’re zombies... but for the many that the film features, it’s impressive, which is mostly credit to the production. As far as theatricality goes, it’s above a regular indie movie production as it shows there’s cinematic value in its production.   
  
So, the film is focused on this man-child named Dave who lacks every form of common sense that you ultimately can’t stand him for a good chunk of the film. I love movies centered on unlikable people who are unapologetic for who they are, but I feel that he was written a bit too stupid that you can’t even emotionally resonate with him when things go wrong in his life. He’s socially inept, obnoxious, and honestly feels like a character taken from a 90s Farrelly Brothers movie. Hell, I’ll even say most of the humor for the first reel is quite raunchy and dates back to the Farrelly Brothers comedy stylings. You're supposed to root for Dave to learn to grow up, but he's detestable. His actions go too far over the edge, but I’ll admit I did laugh my ass off. It’s funnier in its shock value because the comic timing is often on point, but I wasn’t really digging the first 30 minutes or so. It does make up for it by maintaining its sense of humor and giving Dave a meaningful arc that is well-developed and earned, for he sees the worst of himself through a children’s performer named Teddy McGiggle. Josh Gad is relatively funny as this Krusty the Clown-type character who is an entertaining TV persona but a self-centered asshole when cameras are off. His vile shift towards these kids makes for a fun performance, especially since I’ve never seen Gad as a despicable asshole and all I can think of is Olaf. That switch starts off funny but quickly dwindles to annoying, for most of his dialogue consists of f-bombs. When R-rated comedies overuse the word “fuck”, it truly comes across as lazy and most of his dialogue is just him running at 100 fucks per minute. I don’t know if it’s ad libbing or the script, but having a character overuse the word throughout doesn’t make your scenes funny.   
Every negative thing I have to say in accounts of writing is made up for with the performances of the cast and the visual humor. The script, on the other hand, isn’t that smart or clever. Overall, it’s just a standard comedy with funny gags and a mix of personalities. Teddy is a worse person than Dave, which forces him to reflect on himself, but the difference is that Teddy’s funny and that all credit goes to Gad’s great comedic timing.  
  Little Monsters’ humor may be very hit-and-miss, but the well-developed, charming narrative and performances by the central cast makes for an entertaining ride. Rating: 3/5 | 64% Super Scene: Old MacDonald