I was having a pissed-off day yesterday with some criticism I don’t like to be directly told to, train schedule conflicts, and all the pouring rain wetting my shoes. Later that day, I saw “Colossal,” an Indie Sci-Fi film, and it helped me ease my emotions. It’s the kind that has personality and issues, something that the “Independence Day” movies failed to offer.
Anne Hathaway stars as a New York drunk named Gloria, who gets dumped by her British boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens), because of her behavior. So she moves back to her hometown in upstate New York, where she ends up working as a waitress in a bar, owned by Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), whom she knew in grade school. He has friends consisting of Joel (Austin Stowell), who has a thing for Gloria, and Garth (Tim Blake Nelson), a former cokehead with bowel issues.
A monster starts attacking Seoul, South Korea, and Gloria finds out she is connected to it. How? She controls the monster in a local park. Any movements she makes in the park, the monster does the same. And whenever she goes there, the monster appears and then disappears in Seoul.
How is this a personal picture? Because Oscar also controls a giant robot in the same place. Gloria attacks him for being consumed by the power, and he is tired of being Mr. Nice Guy. He even threatens to make more attacks, if she stops working at his bar.
“Colossal” may not be for everyone, because of how confused some people may get about the set-up, but I still think it is smart, versatile, emotionally packed, and, at times, very funny. It satirizes “Godzilla” movies by not relying on big budgets or ads to tell the story, but by relying on personal studies and character development.
Hathaway gives one of her best performances as a drunk, easily convinced of trying to go clean, thanks to the monster story. Unlike Emily Blunt’s character in “The Girl on the Train,” she plays a character you care about. And Sudeikis is a knock-out as he uses his robot controlling to fill up that empty hole in his life. As funny as he can be, he gives probably his darkest performance to date. If you love a fresh Sci-Fi movie with real emotions, then prey “Colossal” expands to your local art house theater.
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
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