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Just one month after the latest King Kong movie blamed American arrogance for upsetting the natural order, Godzilla-reimagining Colossal underlines the devastation careless bloggers might unleash. Kicked out of her NYC apartment by an ex-BF, underemployed and overserved Gloria (Anne Hathaway) slinks back upstate to her parents' vacant home and soon busies herself with a waitressing gig and after-hours succor at the vintage saloon now owned by childhood pal Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). Breaking news then inspires an odd moment of clarity—her recent blacked-out stumbles homeward evidently coincided with a skyscraper-sized behemoth wreaking havoc on the Asian coastline.
Related: Kong: Skull Island and other movies, reviewed.
Noting a familiarity in the beast's mannerisms, Gloria realizes she's somehow been vicariously ravaging South Korea via an outsized reptilian avatar. When Oscar follows her through the nearby park in the wee hours, a giant robot simultaneously follows suit along the same patch of downtown Seoul. Alas, where Gloria was horrified by her sprees' blood-soaked consequences, he finds grim empowerment in ripping off the nice-guy mask and stomping across the friend zone. Their relationship—Gloria's dismissal of Oscar as anything beyond a feckless chum, at least—forms the blackened heart of a deeply strange, ultimately joyless pastiche veering uneasily between mumblecore tastes and blockbuster facility.
Whatever the characters may think about their choices, the picture itself resents their nights of destruction with a blinkered classism and moralistic disdain seemingly ensuring an easy allegory for she who makes a beast of herself. So much of the film is done so well and so thoughtfully, with such seriousness of intent pulsing through the batshit concept, that audiences can't help but expect a climactic mission statement of higher purpose that never arrives.
Critics have praised the film as a feminist parable, which ignores the ongoing tonal disconnect. The monsters are revealed as little more than inexplicably realized revenge fantasies borne by a little girl grown to trade upon the charms of a weaponized immaturity. However alluring our antiheroine's ebullience, it evades the story's actual truths. Fight not the monster, lest ye become a monster. And drink too long with townies, the dive stares also into you.
Critic's Rating: 2/4 stars.
SEE IT: Colossal is rated R. It opens Friday at Cinema 21.