Colossal

It’s a shame that this comes so soon after “Get Out.” While they are completely different movies, they do combine two genres –horror and comedy— that aren’t generally balanced together. And Get Out was next level awesome, while Colossal is merely really, really good. Colossal actually leans more towards a monster movie than horror, or maybe psychological thriller, but it also serves up more laughs than expected. The setup is about all that’s worth talking about because the less you know about the plot, the better. Anne Hathaway is Gloria, an out of work party girl who, after a breakup, relocates to her parent’s empty house in her upstate New York hometown to dry out. She runs into her childhood friend Oscar, a completely game Jason Sudeikis. Meanwhile, in South Korea, a Godzilla-like monster is attacking the city. Yeah.

The film is weird, but it’s a good weird like Edgar Wright or Charles Kaufman’s precocious little brother. Hathaway is genuinely affecting (I really don’t get why so many people dislike her), and Sudeikis actually manages an even more difficult balance as his character shifts don’t necessarily make sense, but sense is not this movie’s greatest concern. The movie leans hard into its monster metaphor tropes, but also at least introduces some intriguing thought to the way men and women differ in their handling of problems, those internal and external. I enjoyed the movie at first, but came to appreciate more the days after as I kept coming back to it.

My Grade – B+