ColossalThe disasters we make of our lives have a way of conjuring chaos for others. Colossal tells the story of Gloria (Anne Hathaway), an erstwhile writer whose principal pastime is to spend all night out drinking, then making excuses for her behavior to her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens). After Tim finally has enough of her shenanigans and throws her out of his New York City apartment, Gloria makes for her hometown of Mainhead, New Hampshire, where she reunites with a childhood friend named Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who owns a local watering hole. Shortly after Gloria begins repeating her aimless partying routine on different turf, news breaks that a mysterious monster has been appearing and trampling Seoul, South Korea--and Gloria has the uneasy feeling that it's somehow connected to her.
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Like its protagonist, Colossal is a film that never seems to get too comfortable in one place for very long. Its marketing suggests a quirky comedy about the mysterious relationship between Gloria and the Godzilla-like monster she commands, although this only covers one part of Colossal. The film begins like a light-hearted mix of comedy and drama with Gloria confronted by the consequences of her repeated irresponsibility, ostensibly returning home to take stock of her life. Much of Gloria's past is only hinted at or alluded to in Colossal. She crashes at an empty house which she says belongs to her parents, who are never seen. It is odd that she would travel all the way to New Hampshire for a place to stay after Tim kicks her out; doesn't Gloria have any friends in New York City who would put her up? The sobering reality is that despite all of the party people who visit Gloria in Tim's apartment after he leaves for work--and after he tells her to vacate by the time he returns--all of them are just enablers rather than true friends. Although her parents apparently allow her to use their rental house until she gets back on her feet, their complete absence in the film suggests a potential rift that hasn't fully healed. (Her sister does call her one morning, although just to tell her about the rampaging monster in South Korea.) Gloria is returning to her suburban home only to feel a bit like a pariah is reminiscent of a film with some similar beats, namely Young Adult. Gloria seems to attract drama like a magnet. After Oscar gives her a lift to his bar, she flirts with one of his friends, Joel (Austin Stowell); Joel's awkward attempt to kiss her provokes a response from the heretofore mellow Oscar that comes across as possessive. (It doesn't help things that she dresses to attract the eyes of men, in tight-fitting jeans and a shirt with one too many buttons undone.) And despite Tim breaking up with Gloria, she repeatedly reaches out to him, looking for everything from forgiveness to approval. Details about how Gloria's life started crumbling are murky, but a conversation she has with Tim is telling. He lectures her about her job as a waitress at a bar, implying that it is beneath her by referencing something from her professional past--hinted to be a bad reaction to online criticism. It is suggested that this event crushed her confidence and led her to seek refuge at the bottom of a bottle. Gloria's alcoholism is a shadow that hangs over every scene, even if it is only in the background of the plot. When she first visits Oscar's tavern, her eyes immediately gravitate toward the bottles of liquor behind the bar. And despite never showing any physical evidence of a hangover, Oscar tells her on a couple of separate occasions about things she presumably told him or agreed to while she was drunk; she believes it must be true, because she can't trust her own recollection of the prior night's events.
The most iconic aspect of Colossal is, of course, the giant monster. She first becomes aware of its existence the morning after she returns to Mainhead, followed by a night out drinking with Oscar, Joel, and another barfly named Garth (Tim Blake Nelson). She dreams that she was a child again, walking to school--like the kids in Mainhead still do, which she witnesses after waking up on a bench one morning. Gloria first becomes suspicious of her ties to the monster after it makes a hand gesture (scratching its head), identical to the same nervous motion Gloria is prone to doing. She confirms her theory when the creature mimics her actions perfectly, and she shows off this mysterious link to Oscar and the rest. But Gloria soon after becomes wracked with guilt when she realizes that her failure to control her body during her drunken episodes resulted in the deaths of hundreds in the monster's wake. The monster mirroring her behavior becomes a metaphor for the "colossal" disaster she has made of her life, and how it has ripples outward and hurts others. This reading of Colossal becomes more profound after Gloria and company discover that Oscar starts manifesting in Seoul as a giant robot, one that similarly emulates his movements. While Gloria becomes horrified at the catastrophic implications of her "power", Oscar finds it give him a sense of empowerment and reveals buried feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. Oscar previously shared with Gloria that he was "almost married", but that it didn't work out, and that his father left him the bar after passing away. He has only half-heartedly begun the process of remodeling it, covering up the old decor with flimsy palettes decorated with Christmas lights, and scratches out the faces in the photos of his one-time fiancee--symbols that he cannot face something he cannot fully control. Oscar is exceedingly willing to help Gloria feel welcome back in her hometown, even giving her a giant television set, futon, and more. But Oscar harbors deep-seated feelings of resentment and powerlessness beneath his "white knight" persona, and turns into a bully when he feels threatened. As Gloria becomes wise to Oscar's own psychological shortcomings, a rift grows in their friendship that plays out on the kaiju stage on the other side of the world. Their fractured relationship--and their manifestations as monsters--makes Colossal a metaphor for toxic and destructive relationships that are not always easy to escape from, and how they escalate and ruin everything of value around you.
Recommended for: Fans of a film that blends genres, including comedy, drama, suspense, science fiction, and even disaster movies into a story of self-discovery and about confronting the monsters of responsibility and accountability head on. Despite featuring giant, rampaging monsters, Colossal is largely a bloodless affair, whose mature content comes exclusively from strong language and poor judgments made by people who drink too much.
The most iconic aspect of Colossal is, of course, the giant monster. She first becomes aware of its existence the morning after she returns to Mainhead, followed by a night out drinking with Oscar, Joel, and another barfly named Garth (Tim Blake Nelson). She dreams that she was a child again, walking to school--like the kids in Mainhead still do, which she witnesses after waking up on a bench one morning. Gloria first becomes suspicious of her ties to the monster after it makes a hand gesture (scratching its head), identical to the same nervous motion Gloria is prone to doing. She confirms her theory when the creature mimics her actions perfectly, and she shows off this mysterious link to Oscar and the rest. But Gloria soon after becomes wracked with guilt when she realizes that her failure to control her body during her drunken episodes resulted in the deaths of hundreds in the monster's wake. The monster mirroring her behavior becomes a metaphor for the "colossal" disaster she has made of her life, and how it has ripples outward and hurts others. This reading of Colossal becomes more profound after Gloria and company discover that Oscar starts manifesting in Seoul as a giant robot, one that similarly emulates his movements. While Gloria becomes horrified at the catastrophic implications of her "power", Oscar finds it give him a sense of empowerment and reveals buried feelings of jealousy and inadequacy. Oscar previously shared with Gloria that he was "almost married", but that it didn't work out, and that his father left him the bar after passing away. He has only half-heartedly begun the process of remodeling it, covering up the old decor with flimsy palettes decorated with Christmas lights, and scratches out the faces in the photos of his one-time fiancee--symbols that he cannot face something he cannot fully control. Oscar is exceedingly willing to help Gloria feel welcome back in her hometown, even giving her a giant television set, futon, and more. But Oscar harbors deep-seated feelings of resentment and powerlessness beneath his "white knight" persona, and turns into a bully when he feels threatened. As Gloria becomes wise to Oscar's own psychological shortcomings, a rift grows in their friendship that plays out on the kaiju stage on the other side of the world. Their fractured relationship--and their manifestations as monsters--makes Colossal a metaphor for toxic and destructive relationships that are not always easy to escape from, and how they escalate and ruin everything of value around you.
Recommended for: Fans of a film that blends genres, including comedy, drama, suspense, science fiction, and even disaster movies into a story of self-discovery and about confronting the monsters of responsibility and accountability head on. Despite featuring giant, rampaging monsters, Colossal is largely a bloodless affair, whose mature content comes exclusively from strong language and poor judgments made by people who drink too much.