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OK, let's get on with the review....
Monster movies are usually dismissed as dumb cinematic fodder, stuff reserved for gifs and children only. And, yes, it is hard not to chuckle at the fun gifs emerging from goofy monster movies of yore (King Kong feeding Godzilla a tree will always make me laugh), it's worth noting that many of the biggest monster movies have underlying themes to them that lend weight to the seemingly shallow proceedings. The original Godzilla was all about the nuclear age, the first King Kong movie is all about the dangers of man trying to exploit animals while a more modern day example can be found in Cloverfield was an incredibly prophetic movie about how we react to the unbelievable in the modern day world.
Following in those movies footsteps is Colossal, which uses a giant monster to make larger points of the unique treatment women receive by men on a daily basis. No, I am not making this up, Colossal is a treatise on the harassment women have received for eons that has only become pronounced in the internet age where anonymity allows men to taunt and send death threats to the likes of Anita Sarkeesian and Leslie Jones without letting geography limit their cruelty. It is so cool that a major movie is not only dealing with this concept but also placing it firmly in the modern day world instead of the past so audiences can't shrug off the movie's depiction of sexism as "a thing of the past".
As for the plot that the important idea gets nestled inside, well, it's a high-concept premise that's so much fun to watch unfold. It all starts out with former high-profile journalist Gloria (Anne Hathaway), whose life hasn't been going too well lately. She's been out of a job for over a year, she spends all her time drinking away her worries and her boyfriend, Tim (Dan Stevens, equipped with his British accent!), has decided to stop helping her and tosses her out of their apartment. This development leads Gloria to return to her hometown for the first time in ages, where she takes up residence in an old cabin her parents had possession of and begins working at a bar with former Elementary school pal turned bar owner Oscar (Jason Sudeikis).
With a steady job by her side, Gloria's life at least seem to be teetering on getting back on track....and then a giant monster attacks Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Such an event makes worldwide headlines but Gloria takes particular interest in it because she and the monster are remotely linked. She's controlling the monster, every move it makes, that's all her. This pronounced power shapes her entire life and....well, there's a reason I made sure this was a rare spoiler review for me, because I don't want to ruin what comes next for unwitting viewers but it's borderline impossible to talk about this movie without going into detail what happens next.
Namely, that she isn't the only one controlling a giant beast that can attack Seoul.
Oscar can remotely control a giant robot and he has very different plans for his newly discovered power set. Both Gloria and Oscar are heavy alcohol users who don't like where their lives have turned out for differing reasons, but whereas the weight and responsibility of Gloria's newfound powers (she's accidentally killed hundreds of people while unwittingly controlling the monster in a drunken stupor) lead her to immediately, as the monster, apologize to the populace and promise to stop showing up, Oscar doesn't want to quit. No, he's angry at the world, and particularly Gloria. The idea of someone from his hometown (and a woman at that) getting out of this place and finding some success infuriates him, so he uses his newly discovered ability to remotely control a giant robot as a way to control Gloria herself. It's basically kaiju blackmail that he's using to make himself feel better at the expense of other people.
Self-hatred fuels the two most prominent characters of Colossal, but the way they play it amongst our protagonist and antagonist is incredibly well-done. Gloria has her own flaws as a person to be sure (one thing I liked about her as a character that she feels very real in terms of screwing up and doing the wrong thing often) but a lot of her self-hatred comes from the BS the men in her life toss at her, including some briefly mentioned online "haters" that made her previous job a nightmare at times. Oscar, meanwhile, isn't content with his lot in life and lashes out at others in order to cope with being himself. When both are granted incredible powers, Gloria tries to make the world better (after goofing around with being able to control a monster, which is one of those flawed moments of the character that make her realistic and engaging) while Oscar takes this opportunity for vengeance against Gloria, someone who he carries a large amount of envy towards.
The way Oscar manipulates and controls Gloria is incredibly authentic to the behavior of real-life guys who similarly engage in classic abusive tactics with women (minus the presence of giant monsters of course) and writer/director Nacho Vigalondo creates an incredibly realistic depiction of the daily harassment and unsavory behaviors women like Gloria have to face on a daily basis in the real world. There's subtle layers to the way the movie handles Gloria's extended struggles that have me realizing new details about the movie (such as how Gloria gets to control a living breathing organism while Oscar controls a mechanical heartless creation, which I'd bet is far from unintentional) that only further my adoration of it, there is just so much to unpack here. All of that incredible detail is in here, plus, Vigalondo's script has plenty of virtues on its own beyond the underlying themes that make up the core of the movie. Having never seen one of his movies before, I gotta say how much I love his dialogue, which can veer from being super funny (Gloria gets to deliver some choice lines as she gets comfortable with returning to her hometown root) to being thoughtful quite quickly and organically. The various actors (including supporting player Tim Blake Nelson) onboard this project deliver those splendidly-written lines exceptionally well and their all filmed well too by way of Viglonodo's exceptional directing and cinematographer Eric Kress, who has particularly thrives whilst juxtaposing the stylized elements of the movie with its more mundane facets.
Speaking of actors, under Vigalondo's direction, Anne Hathaway delivers one of my favorite performances she's given in her career. Gloria is a complex human being, one that, at the start of the movie, seems to have become out of touch with reality itself for a little too long. Seeing her gradually come back to terms with the real world once both the presence of a giant monster and that large beastie she can remote control enter her life is handled exceptionally well by Anne Hatheway. After turning in strong work in more large-scale movies like Les Miserables and Interstellar, it's cool to see her thriving in the confines of a more intimate movie like Colossal that allows us all to be reminded that, yep, this lady is a real talent as an actor! She gets to soar in this incredibly thoughtful, well-filmed, strikingly written motion picture that's handily one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. Do give the phenomenal Colossal a look-see dear readers, it's yet another example of a monster movie with lots on its mind in addition to featuring a really cool monster.
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