Review: ‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster’ reimagines ‘Frankenstein’ with little thought

The feature debut from California born-and-raised filmmaker Bomani J. Story, “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” is a contemporary reimagining of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” Trading in 18th century Europe for a predominantly Black and working-class housing development, writer-director Story centers his film on Vicaria, a brilliant teenager who has lost both her mother and sibling to brutal gun violence. While ideas concerning the awakening of the dead are rife with transformational potential, in “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” the means used to materialize them leave much to be desired. It is less that Vicaria’s character is desecrating the dead or even that there is inherently no way to show Black death onscreen without retraumatizing Black audiences. Given this, it makes me wonder: What exactly is the point of a movie like “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster”?