Colossal review

Colossal is about an alcoholic woman who returns to her hometown after her boyfriend broke up with her. Meanwhile, a kaiju is attacking Seoul.

Trying to describe this movie accurately is a challenge. Half of it involves Anne Hathaway's character trying to sort out her life and deal with her alcoholism. The other half is of a monster attacking Seoul and how the world reacts to this. These parts interact with each other and you wouldn't be able to fast forward to the parts you are interested in without losing key elements of the film. The way they interact is smart, interesting and original. I would compare it to The Guest (coincidentally also with Dan Stevens) in the way that the two completely different films meld together.

As mentioned, Hathaway portrays an alcoholic who returns home. Here she meets a friend from school, Jason Sudeikis, who offers her a job at his bar. Because of this she doesn't tackle her alcoholism in a traditional way. At the bar she hangs out with Sudeikis and two of his friends. Here they talk about how to improve the bar and, eventually, the monster. This was one of my favourite parts of the film: the realistic way people would react to a monster attacking a city halfway across the world. The social aspect is captured with the bar becoming busier, and insights into the theories surrounding the monster are overheard.

The way we are shown that Hathaway is an alcoholic is no different than many other films: her hair is not done up and her mascara is heavy around her eyes. While the look is familiar, it is how she portrays Gloria which is appreciated. Gloria's identity is not simply that she is an alcoholic, we learn more about her and her other troubles in the past which pushed her towards this point. I presume that the way she handles her alcoholism is realistic (I've never been familiar with it in my life). The dependency does not make her quirky and inhibits her in her life and career.

There is an event in the film which causes the rest of it to become very dark. This event helps to reinforce the idea of personal demons that everyone has. It also, like 10 Cloverfield Lane, shows that there are more types of monsters than those which attack our cities. It is this parallel that really makes the film memorable and worth watching.

In short: Colossal is an interesting look at both alcohol and monsters, and how they affect people's lives.