Colossal is a small film with a huge topic
The trailers for "Colossal" are misleading. It features Anne Hathaway acting cute, dancing and posing as a monster. Yes, this is adorable, and Hathaway has the "girl next store" look to pull it off. But the film is much more than what we see in the previews.
If I were to grade the three acts of the film, it would come out B, D, and B+. The beginning is clever and sets up the action well, but not perfectly. For example, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) mentions a few times how terrible she is. However, we never see her darker side. That would add a lot to the drama and the monster we see later. The conflict she has with men and Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) in particular would also be clearer if we knew a little more about Gloria's troubled past.
The second act slows down and gets mired in the exposition. While it does reveal important elements of the story, it is inelegant and jarring. The plot points are there, the problem is that Sudeikis can't pull off the creepy reveal the way Jason Bateman did in "The Gift." While character issues are often the fault of the script, and the script is in no way guiltless here, I put the failure of the second act on the acting of Sudeikis.
Act three fixes the problem as Sudeikis enters his comfort zone as an actor and is no longer asked to be nuanced. The ending saves the film from being another failed attempt at using allegory to create relevant cinema.
As difficult as it is to pull off different sets and atmospheres and tone in one film, Colossal blends these elements well. A film that starts as a comedy of errors and then turns into a nightmare is hard to pull off and Colossal does this fairly adeptly.
One problem I feel I have to mention is the music. Not everyone likes sappy love songs about broken hearted whiners. I recommend that people who use music in films be careful with the tone of the pieces so that they don't distract from the movie. These might be decent stand alone songs, but in the film, they come off as maudlin. Rating: Matinée
"Colossal" is a good allegory that works but has flaws and isn't original enough to score higher marks.
Peace, Tex Shelters
The trailers for "Colossal" are misleading. It features Anne Hathaway acting cute, dancing and posing as a monster. Yes, this is adorable, and Hathaway has the "girl next store" look to pull it off. But the film is much more than what we see in the previews.
If I were to grade the three acts of the film, it would come out B, D, and B+. The beginning is clever and sets up the action well, but not perfectly. For example, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) mentions a few times how terrible she is. However, we never see her darker side. That would add a lot to the drama and the monster we see later. The conflict she has with men and Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) in particular would also be clearer if we knew a little more about Gloria's troubled past.
The second act slows down and gets mired in the exposition. While it does reveal important elements of the story, it is inelegant and jarring. The plot points are there, the problem is that Sudeikis can't pull off the creepy reveal the way Jason Bateman did in "The Gift." While character issues are often the fault of the script, and the script is in no way guiltless here, I put the failure of the second act on the acting of Sudeikis.
Act three fixes the problem as Sudeikis enters his comfort zone as an actor and is no longer asked to be nuanced. The ending saves the film from being another failed attempt at using allegory to create relevant cinema.
As difficult as it is to pull off different sets and atmospheres and tone in one film, Colossal blends these elements well. A film that starts as a comedy of errors and then turns into a nightmare is hard to pull off and Colossal does this fairly adeptly.
One problem I feel I have to mention is the music. Not everyone likes sappy love songs about broken hearted whiners. I recommend that people who use music in films be careful with the tone of the pieces so that they don't distract from the movie. These might be decent stand alone songs, but in the film, they come off as maudlin. Rating: Matinée
"Colossal" is a good allegory that works but has flaws and isn't original enough to score higher marks.
Peace, Tex Shelters