Closet Monster Reviews
September 2, 2021
As a film about sexual awakenings, Closet Monster is commendable in its focus not on the mechanics of sexuality, but instead on its ramifications.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
July 6, 2021
If I've said it once I have said it a million billion trillion times - every movie needs to have Isabella Rossellini voicing a hamster.
March 4, 2021
Grapples with sexuality or homophobia and does so with style and guts.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
June 9, 2020
Deliciously [mixes] genres from domestic comedy to teen horror/fantasy.
September 15, 2019
Stephen Dunn has in fact crafted an instant classic of queer cinema that takes the coming-of-age and coming-out tale, rejuvenates it and delivers a film that unapologetically puts the elephant in the room in its very title.
August 7, 2019
Closet Monster is a little obvious with its symbolism... However, [Stephen] Dunn stylistically pulls off the movie's themes beautifully.
April 18, 2019
Closet Monster is certainly worth a watch due to its originality, quirkiness and honesty, none of which ever seem forced.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
August 27, 2018
[An] absolutely stunning queer coming-of-age story.
December 26, 2016
If you didn't think a hamster voiced by Isabella Rossellini could make you cry, think again.
December 12, 2016
A psychological thriller that has the ability to leave no one indifferent, something that makes one of the pearls to discover this year and a future cult title. [Full review in Spanish]
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5
November 30, 2016
One way to tell a promising director is by the acting in his or her film, and the performances in "Closet Monster" are solid all the way around, no matter how small the role.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
October 28, 2016
If it all doesn't work perfectly, that's oddly okay, the character-driven highs making up for the bits and pieces that fail to reach the same sort of unpredictably enthralling heights so much of the rest thankfully soars to.
Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4
October 24, 2016
Sort of a horror film, but not really. It's too funny to be categorized that way.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
September 30, 2016
If Dunn can direct his next work with more considered distance from his characters, he has a great future as an inventive and assured film director.
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10
September 29, 2016
Dunn plays around with perspective and style, but all the flash doesn't obscure the film's emotion and heart, which are deep and true.
Full Review | Original Score: B-
September 29, 2016
It's nothing less than an emotional exorcism.
September 23, 2016
Closet Monster is most successful when it uses fable-like qualities to allow us to feel Oscar's emotions viscerally rather than narratively.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
September 23, 2016
A most auspicious debut.
September 22, 2016
Connor Jessup wonderfully inhabits the teenage Oscar, who observes others while trying to find himself. Aaron Abrams, as his father, and Aliocha Schneider and Sofia Banzhaf, as friends, are just as multilayered.
September 21, 2016
It wouldn't work at all if the filmmaker hadn't lucked into an actor as gifted as Jessup.