Colossal

Dir: Nacho Vigalondo

2017

*****

It really bothers me that Colossal went largely overlooked because certain critics who are in, quite frankly, baffling positions of influence, couldn’t get their head’s round the cross over of two vastly different genres. Colossal is an indie-style social drama that crosses over into the monster movie genre. It’s something new, something that should be celebrated. I’m not just giving  the film or its director Nacho Vigalondo credit for originality either, I’m giving Colossal a huge five star rating because it is intelligent, entertaining and one of the best, most refreshing films of the last few years. It’s almost as if people have forgotten that the original Godzilla was a social drama in disguise, Godzilla himself representing Japan’s fear of the Hydrogen bomb following the devastation of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Most giant monsters depicted in classic b-movies are a metaphor for something else, ranging from nuclear holocaust to the Cold War invasion of Communists – whatever the big fear of the day is basically. Colossal is no different, except the fear is personal to just one person. That person is Gloria (played by Anne Hathaway), who, after arriving home drunk in the early hours yet again, is dumped by her financially supportive boyfriend and kicked out of their shared apartment. He is the bad guy until we realise that Gloria is an alcoholic and has all the selfishness that comes with it. She sleeps all day, she uses people and is unreliable. A struggling writer, Gloria has developed a self-centred attitude where she is the center of the universe. She’s friendly and never nasty to anyone, she just lets them down, and in turn, lets her self down. She’s a lot of people I know. It is quite refreshing to see a character depicted in this way; real and uncliche. You feel for her but she isn’t hard done by, she lets herself down and no one else is to blame. She heads back home to her hometown in New England, into her parents old and empty house. She bumps into Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), an old friend of her’s from childhood and he offers her work in his bar. Oscar takes a shine to Gloria, who takes full advantage of his bar’s selection of alcohol. Gloria also has memory loss after a night’s drinking and forgets that she has flirted with Oscar’s friends, which hurts the lovelorn bar owner who thought his feelings could be reciprocated. After one evening of heavy drinking, Gloria wakes to find herself on a park bench and heads home to rest. To everyone’s amazement, that night news reports tell of a giant monster sighting in downtown Seoul. The giant lizard monster appeared and then disappeared into thin air, after knocking down a few buildings and making some strange movements. When the same event happens a few days later, Gloria notices that the movements of the monster are very similar to her own and the penny drops. Whenever she walks through the park at 8.05am, the monster manifests on the other side of the world and mimics her movements. She is the monster. In order to confirm for herself that it isn’t a delusion, she asks Oscar and his buddies (Austin Stowell and Tim Blake Nelson) to come with her to the park and watch live footage from Seoul. It isn’t a delusion, she is the monster. However, Oscar, upset that Gloria had knocked him back and had slept with his friend, shows his true colours and strikes out in the only way he thinks will hurt Gloria – he enters the park himself and a giant robot appears in Seoul. The film then becomes a big monster movie, with giant lizard vs giant robot. It’s fiendishly wry and a brilliant black comedy, especially for the nerds among us. In downtown Seoul it is lizard vs robot but in New England it is Selfishness vs resentment, a perfect representation of real life, told through the medium of monster. How they actually manifest themselves as monsters is explained, not brilliantly, but for me it was the least important aspect of the story and not something the audience needs to get hung up on. It’s happening, it’s amazing, it’s best to leave it there and look at the bigger (and smaller) picture. The conclusion is awesome. I thought the exploration of what makes a real monster was exceptionally clever and I pretty much adored everything about the movie. Anne Hathaway has never been better in my opinion, and amazingly she was in the second trimester of her pregnancy while filming. She sought out the film when looking for something new, citing that she had found herself in ‘a little bit of an artistic no man’s land’. She has since said that it reminded her in some respects of her favourite film; Being John Malkovich, which makes a lot of sense. Most criticism was that it was a one-trick novelty and totally incomprehensible. To hear such things from film critics working for some of the biggest news papers in the world is staggering really, as it is easy to comprehend and should be celebrated for its originality, wit and intelligence. It’s probably also the most charming movie of the year, charm oozing out of every millimetre of film reel/pixel. Tragically misunderstood by an army of critics who I can only imagine want a different career or want to watch the same films over and over again. A future cult hit for sure.