Colossal
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Actors: Anne Hathaway, Austin Stowell, Jason Sudeikis
Release Date: Friday 19th May 2017
Genre(s): Action, Comedy, Drama
Running time: Spain minutes
Anne Hathaway plays kind-of-a-fuck-up, Gloria. She drinks way too much, can't find a job and is dumped by her handsome boyfriend (Dan Stevens), who is sick of her flakiness and excuses. With no money or options, she returns to her empty family home in a small town. There she reconnects with Jason Sudeikis' Oscar, drinks some more, hangs out and gets a part time job in his bar. When she wakes up one morning to the news of a giant monster attacking Seoul in South Korea, she realises a surreal link.
For years we've heard about how Hollywood has run out of original ideas and was essentially just adapting, rebooting, reimaging, or making sequels to existing properties. So here we are now, with something almost disconcertingly original starring a no bullshit movie star who has also won an Oscar.
Given the amount of press Hathaway has been doing for the film, it's obviously a project she deeply cared about; it's a small budget, despite the number of effects, and was only probably ever going to find a niche audience, which may develop into a cult following over time. And to be fair, she's excellent; so much so that it might be some of her best work since the late, great Jonathan Demme directed Rachel Getting Married. The film around her though, shifts, confuses and tonally backflips so often there's little else to admire outside of her and the balls it took to make it.
Look, certain critics have raved about it, but certain critics have a habit of raving about films they don't quite understand and they just don't want to appear stupid. I'll wholeheartedly hold my hand up and say I didn't get it. Leave it to the audience all you like to "decide" or "figure out" for themselves it's ultimately too all over the shop to really engage.
