Nacho Vigalondo's "Colossal" sits comfortably among the best of our recent genre resurgence.
It borrows the trappings of the kaiju film to tell the story of Gloria (Anne Hathaway), an out-of-work alcoholic writer who returns to her hometown and into the orbit of Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), a childhood acquaintance. The motions of her experience aren't out of the normal for that kind of drama, but the kaiju add a distinctly fun element and broader stakes. And, like many science-fiction movies recently, the movie focuses on the experience of a woman navigating a world defined by bad men. Good.
Fair warning, though: This isn't a kaiju film so much as it is a drama with kaiju trappings, and I don't mean that in the shallow way people say certain superhero movies are "genre X using superhero Y." The drama of the movie is Gloria's interpersonal experience with Oscar and his group of friends. Hathaway and Sudeikis give career-high performances as the two people with problems. You could remove the kaiju from the film and still have a compelling drama; what they add is just icing on the cake.
There isn't much I can say about the script without spoiling some wonderful surprises. Vigalondo's script is smart and funny, his direction beautiful. There are moment of real comedy intercut with awfulness and human stupidity.
It's a shame "Colossal" is currently available to see at the Landmark Keystone Art Theatre only for another week, and I wholly recommend making the trip. Just go see it.