Colossal (2017 film) = Finished

This is the most uncomfortable monster movie I've ever watched.

That isn't a diss--it's why I recommend Colossal wholeheartedly. The premise of the movie takes two people, and embodies the toxic traumas and relationship dynamics that plague their lives through the kaiju they control. Anne Hathaway is a mess who feels unable to control her life, and runs into people who control her life for her. They treat her like sh*t, but at least she has a direction. Jason Sudeikis (who plays an INCREDIBLE villain by the way) always has to be the nice guy...even if he isn't.

They can only control their kaiju at a certain time of day, by stepping into a local park--the rules are very magic realist, and they're revealed in gradual, elongated pieces. This extended ramp--the full ability to 'live' in each stage of the main character's growing knowledge of her abilities--makes the eventual use of parallel imagery incredibly potent. This movie pulls off a high concept on a low budget, largely through your imagination.

Early in the movie, you learn the rules, and get some very expensive CGI shots to make the boundaries and consequences of character actions as clear as possible. So, by the time Jason Sudeikis stomps his way through the wood chips padding the park's interior, you don't need a CGI graphic to depict what just happened. You already know. That wasn't an actor being deliberately over the top in his movements--that's a thousand people in South Korea that he just killed.

I can see why that kind of odd, deliberate nuance would be a difficult sell, as would the pacing. Colossal is slow at the start and exponentially speeds up the closer you get to the end, with incredibly uncomfortable, unfortunately true to life interpersonal scenes intruding into the timeline as soon as you begin to get comfortable. However, I don't understand why this didn't at least get a cult audience.

It's good.
It's strange.

It's really good.

It's really strange.

Maybe we'd be better off if folks didn't stick kaiju in a box.
Hell, if someone can explore topics as complex as domestic abuse and gaslighting through kaiju, like they did here, we can use them for anything and everything.

Let's do it.