By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Early in 2026, we witnessed Ryan Gosling save the universe with the help of an alien friend in the hard science fiction hit Project Hail Mary. Exactly thirty years ago, on July 12, 1996, Canadian filmgoers watched Gosling perform in his first-ever big-screen role in the independent horror comedy Frankenstein and Me, when it was released in Canada’s theatres. Thirty years, numerous characters. The Burlington-raised Hollywood star has come a long way.
Directed by Robert Tinnell, Frankenstein and Me is the story of a dreamy, imaginative child trying to process grief. The story takes place in a small desert town in Southern California in the year 1970. Earl Williams (Jamieson Boulanger) has a strong bond with his loving father, Les Williams (played by Burt Reynolds), who is supportive of Earl’s morbid fascination with monster-populated worlds like Frankenstein and Night of the Living Dead. Les himself is an unsuccessful inventor and sees in his son the possibility of a future he never achieved.
Earl is taught by his father to love inventions and stories, but when his father passes away, Earl is heartbroken, and the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred. He disappears into elaborate daydreams and wild schemes to cope and becomes more and more detached from his responsibilities as the eldest child of the house. Inspired by the media he’s been interacting with, especially Frankenstein, he wants to try to cheat death, too, with an experiment involving an abandoned carnival dummy.
Gosling plays a supporting role in the film, appearing as Earl’s best friend, Kenny. Kenny sticks by Earl even after all the other kids at school have written Earl off as weird. Kenny comes across as a typical free-range preteen of the 70s, back when the “stranger danger” movement hadn’t yet picked up speed. He rides around town on his bike without adult supervision and without a helmet. He’s interested in girls (and is even dating one). He sneaks into adult horror flicks, plays juvenile pranks, and is just generally rough-and-tumble. A normal kid. But his character stands out for his heartwarming loyalty to Earl after Earl is ostracized for his obsession with monsters.
Gosling’s performance as Kenny, which he played back when he was in his mid-teens, is an early predecessor to the many film roles he would become internationally famous for as an adult. A true, unbreakable friendship in the face of adversity is at the heart of Project Hail Mary, where he plays Dr. Ryland Grace opposite the alien life form Rocky, a puppet. In La La Land, Gosling plays the role of an unwavering supporter for an aspiring Hollywood actress (played by Emma Stone) with big goals but little luck.
Frankenstein and Me is a story about how having a dream or a goal in life can bring you closer to others, but also alienate you from those who are unsupportive. Earl’s strict teacher singles him out and humiliates him in front of his classmates as punishment for doodling monsters during her classes. Earl’s stern, fantasy-forbidding mother wants to banish imaginative play from the house so that her children can focus on studying and upward social mobility. But Earl’s true joys in life come from forming connections with those who share his interests and accept him for who he is, such as his father and Kenny.
The film’s grainy texture and campy, all-things-handcrafted aesthetic also make one feel nostalgic for the technological simplicity and ever-changing pop culture of the 1990s. It was really a much different world back then. Here in Burlington, especially, where Gosling attended high school, the 90s were a time of growing infrastructure and an identity shift as the city moved rapidly out of its commuter-town status. But we still watch Gosling’s films. That hasn’t changed.
Frankenstein and Me has been uploaded to YouTube to the appropriately named channel “1990’s Nostalgia.” It can be watched for free here.
