Colossal Review

This Film is Not Yet Rated (Most Possibly R)

NEON, Voltage Pictures, Brightlight Pictures

1 Hr and 50 Minutes

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson

After losing her job and boyfriend in New York, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) moves back to her hometown only to discover how strangely connected she is to an enormous Kaiju attacking Seoul.

 

THE GOOD: When it comes to big blockbuster creature features, I've never been in favor to them. I'm meh with Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, and I hated Gareth Edwards' Godzilla so it's to be fair to go into this with a lot of skepticism based on the premise alone.  Wow, did this blow me away. This film by no means feature enough kaijus to classify it as a monster movie but it is the best film I've ever seen to feature kaijus in it. Yes, this is an indie movie with a significantly smaller budget than those blockbusters, but this is a story that is far much more superior and original than every creature feature released since Cloverfield. If The Truman Show, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Gift, and Pacific Rim had an illegitimate baby, it would be Colossal.  Academy Award nominated director Nacho Vigalondo who has had a weird track record with making segments for anthology films such as V/H/S: Viral pulls an inspirational turnaround with a concept that is both original and creative. Instead of displaying action for the sake of the audience's amusement, he focuses more on character development with an absurd story that works so seamlessly. Remember last year where Swiss Army Man was the best WTF movie in accounts of storytelling, well this is this year's Swiss Army Man for me. Like Swiss Army Man, Colossal consists of a very weird tone that you would expect to predict every singular plot point from the trailer alone, but throughout you are thoroughly surprised how far both the story and some of the film's characters go. 

The Kaijus serve a purpose to the character depth of Gloria who is a hot and total mess. It's hard to conceptually visualize the gorgeous Anne Hathaway as a drunk, but she proves all expectations wrong. She really makes it work with her messy hair and the bags under her eyes. There are several moments where she's so drunk and gone you expect Denzel Washington from Flight to say "goddamn girl and I thought I was bad." The film barely goes without a scene of Anne Hathaway either eyeballing a beer or drinking a beer. At times it feels as if she takes a page out of Emily Blunt's performance in The Girl on the Train and dials it up to eleven even down to the scene of feminine empowerment. Their characters are so similar in the level actions including alcoholism that at times you just start thinking if Gloria would be stalking somebody while riding a train.  I can just imagine Gloria becoming friends with Rachel and bond over getting messed up.

AND THEN FACE EACH OTHER ON LIP SYNC BATTLE! 

All joking aside, Hathaway is outstanding. Just like the Kaiju, Hathaway commands the screen with presence and strength throughout. Because of the film being also as a dark comedy, her timing and delivery is spot on. She mixes her performance between a thin line of comedy and drama and she does a stellar job balancing both. 

The true performance that both captivated and surprised me came from no other than Jason Sudeikis. For the past several years it was cool to see Sudeikis go from a comedian off SNL to a charming comedic actor in films and voice actor for animated films. Now, he has transformed to not only to a comedic actor but a dramatic actor. In this movie, Sudeikis is without saying too much scary. Where you are introduced to him as a pretty great guy in the first act where you would expect he would become Hathaway's love interest due to their great dynamic together, you see him progress a someone you wouldn't expect him to be. Think of Jason Bateman in The Gift mixed with John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane. It is a star turning performance from him to an extent that a part of me would consider him as a potential actor for the Joker if DC would have the balls to fire Jared Leto. He's humorous, then charming, then intensely terrifying and you're amazed by it. There are moments you are frightened by him to a point where you're at the edge of your seat. And then you remind yourself wait this is Jason Sudekis. How is Jason Sudekis scaring the shit out of me?

THE BAD: As clever and original Colossal is, it doesn't escape the realm from containing the tropes of an indie movie. It relies so much on quirky characters and oddball humor that it drags for some time in the story. It wraps itself up too quickly at a point you would predict it would to end, but wouldn't mind it going on for several minutes more.

One of the weakest things about the film is Dan Stevens. Dan Stevens is a good actor with a certain charm, but in this, he is incredibly unlikable. I don't know if he's channeling his inner asshole before we see him as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, but you really don't like his character, Tim. In the beginning, you reason with him and all and then when he comes back he turns into a nagging mom. You just wanna see Gloria kick his ass at times the way he talks to her. 

LAST STATEMENT: With chilling unexpected performances from Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, Colossal is a creatively original character driven film that is smart, dark, and consistently funny that it shines a great limelight on director Nacho Vigalondo.

Rating: 4/5 | 87%  

SUPER SCENE: Gloria's Redemption | "You wanna know the most irresponsible thing I can do in this bar?"

Pros	Cons
Anne Hathaway's Peformance	Dan Steven's Tim
Jason Sudeikis' unexpected	Indie Movie Tropes Including Quirky Characters
Nacho Vigalondo writing and direction	Briefly Drags
Humorous elements
Progression of Story and Character Especially the Relationship Between Gloria and Oscar
Kaiju scenes