Review of Colossal (2017) by Manuel R — 02 May 2017

COLOSSAL is a fascinating and fresh genre mash-up. Ostensibly, it's a giant monster movie (of the kaiju variety), but what we're really dealing with is a far more personal story about a set of very flawed characters.

The result of that is one of the more unique spins on the monster movie I've ever seen, as it takes something massive in scale and marries it to something deeply intimate and human. As conceived by writer/director Nacho Vigalondo, the story has a TON of stuff going on under the surface (and above the surface); this is a movie that's actually about things, and it revolves around strong, complicated, and distinctive characters.

Anne Hathaway delivers one of the finest performances of her career; there's really no way her character should be likable on the page, but Hathaway makes her fundamentally human and decent, even when the character is acting irresponsibly.

Her opposite number here is Jason Sudeikis, and with his turn here he has earned a new fan; he's phenomenal in this film, playing everything so naturally, so affably, that when the character eventually does take a hard turn, it packs a wallop, and Sudeikis sells the hell out of it.

He has a showstopping scene in bar with Dan Stevens and Hathaway that will surely be one of my favorite contained scenes of the year. In the directing chair, Vigalondo proves to be adept at tone, as he juggles story elements which do eventually go to some uncomfortable places with a deftness and lightness of touch that keeps the movie incredibly engaging all the way through.

We're eventually presented with some heavier stuff, yes, but the movie never stops being an entertaining watch, and that's an accomplishment. The movie stumbles a bit at its climax (which I think is a bit thematically muddled), but everything up to that point is fantastic.