Colossal turns a kaiju comedy into a sharp character drama
Anne Hathaway’s next monster encounter in The End of Oak Street gives Australian viewers a good reason to revisit Colossal, the 2016 science-fiction film that places her at the centre of an utterly strange connection between personal behaviour and a giant creature in Seoul.
At 110 minutes, Colossal initially presents itself as an offbeat romantic comedy. Gloria, an unemployed writer with a serious drinking problem, is forced to leave New York after her boyfriend Tim, played by Dan Stevens, throws her out of their apartment. She returns to her largely vacant childhood home and reconnects with Oscar, an old friend played by Jason Sudeikis.
Gloria spends her nights drinking at Oscar’s bar. One morning, as she makes her way home, a huge kaiju appears on the other side of the world. The creature seems to copy her movements, creating a bizarre link between a hungover woman in her hometown and a monster threatening Seoul.
The film’s premise sounds deliberately ridiculous, but writer-director Nacho Vigalondo uses it to explore addiction, resentment, wasted potential and the danger of men who treat basic kindness as a form of ownership.
Gloria soon notices that the monster appears at the same time each morning. She discovers that it emerges whenever she enters a particular playground at exactly 8:05 a.m. Every movement she makes there is repeated by the kaiju, right down to scratching the nervous itch she often feels on top of her head.
A monster becomes a mirror for Gloria’s behaviour
Her first attempts to control the creature are almost playful. She dances, makes exaggerated gestures for Oscar and his friends, and watches news reports of the strange events spreading online. For a brief period, Gloria becomes the most important person in the world, despite being unemployed, homeless and trapped between drinking and recovering from it.
That novelty ends when she trips and sends the kaiju crashing to the ground. The resulting destruction kills dozens or hundreds of innocent people. The incident forces Gloria to see her drinking in a new way: her reckless choices may appear small in everyday life, but they still damage the people around her.
Gloria’s alcohol use is tied to her disappointment. She once expected to become a successful writer in New York, but instead lost her job, her relationship and her sense of forward movement. Her response is to turn that frustration inward through sadness and self-destruction.
Oscar’s friendliness hides a more troubling motive
Oscar is also disappointed with his life, although his frustration takes a different form. His main achievement is running the bar he inherited from his father. Rather than collapsing into sadness, he allows his disappointment to harden into anger.
The contrast between Gloria and Oscar is not always handled cleanly, but it remains compelling. A decade after the film’s release, Sudeikis’s performance carries an added tension because his approachable screen persona is so strongly associated with idealised male goodness.
Oscar appears generous. He gives Gloria work, helps furnish her house and listens to her problems. Gradually, however, his favours reveal themselves as transactional. He decides that helping Gloria gives him a claim over her, exposing the possessive logic behind the supposedly nice guy.
That shift changes the meaning of the kaiju gimmick. The monster is no longer merely a source of spectacle or an unusual metaphor for addiction. It becomes a way to show how resentment and entitlement can turn an ordinary relationship into something frightening.
A flawed film that has become more revealing with time
Colossal remains an uneven and occasionally frustrating film. Its movement from eccentric kaiju comedy to an abuse-focused thriller is abrupt, and the change can be uncomfortable. The film’s ideas about Gloria and Oscar do not always fit together smoothly either.
Even so, its central insight has aged well: recognising harmful behaviour does not instantly undo its consequences. Accountability is awkward and painful, and it offers less immediate satisfaction than simply defeating a monster.
That makes Gloria difficult to like at times, but also gives the story more weight than its trailer suggests. Beneath the playful science-fiction setup is an argument that the difference between causing harm and becoming truly monstrous lies in acknowledging the damage, accepting responsibility and making a genuine effort to change.
For readers who enjoy the visual language of giant-monster cinema, the film also offers a useful reminder that spectacle works best when it reflects something human. That same balance between accessible thrills and deeper themes is worth considering when exploring the RETROCADE arcade blog or choosing an arcade machine for a home games room.
Colossal is available to stream for free on Kanopy, and it can also be rented or purchased through various other platforms. More details are available via Colossal.
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