Review of Colossal (2017) by Viddy W — 01 Sep 2017

In a day and age where trailers tend to give away absolutely everything a film has to offer, Colossal toys with you a bit, smartly withholding the twists in the narrative so that no matter your expectation, you can't help but be surprised. So, if you were thinking of dismissing this film based off the information available to you in the trailer, don't. Director Nacho Vigalondo bends the giant monster movie genre with Colossal in the same way that Charlie Kaufman has bent nearly everything he's ever touched. Something like that shouldn't really be skipped out on, right?

Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a self-sabotaging alcoholic who has just returned to her hometown tail between legs due to her self-effacing behaviors. Not too long after being in town, Gloria runs into her old childhood friend, Oscar (played by Jason Sudeikis, who is truly the standout performer here). Oscar owns his dad's bar and offers the down-on-her luck Gloria a job (probably not the best place for an alcoholic), and she hesitantly takes the offer.

Shortly thereafter, a giant kaiju-like creature appears ransacking the city of Seoul. Through a series of connectors, Gloria realizes there's a correlation between the monster and herself. Then, of course, all hell breaks loose; although, not in the way you'd necessarily expect. Where most giant monster films, like this year's Kong, build to the inevitable slug out punch fest that we've all grown to love, Colossal does so in a more human way, allowing you to really feel connected to the punches.

Rating: 4 drunken kaiju manifestations outta 5.