Cinema lovers worldwide have, finally, access to which was my favourite film at 64th San Sebastian International Film Festival, so I come to tell you about Colossal (ID, 2016, Nacho Vigalondo), that was presented in the Official Selection, out of contest.
This movie, which by the way was initially going to be named after the Spanish city "Santander"* (!) introduces Gloria (Anne Hathaway), who leaves New York and heads back to her hometown in an attempt to give some structure to the wreckage that is her life. There she re-encounters her childhood friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who will welcome her into his group of friends (Austin Stowel, Tim Blake Nelson) and will help her steer her messy existence towards a lifestyle that would be nice and healthy if it wasn't because Gloria seems to have some kind of connection with a giant monster that is destroying Seoul.
I know, I know, it sounds a bit bizarre. But I promise it's a cool one. Really.
It might be the evolution of its characters what makes this title quite an elegant entertainment instead of a surreal absurdity, I'm not sure; anyway, Gloria and especially Oscar are presented as very likable elements of a chick flick, but that quickly degenerates into extremely dark levels in which everyone seems to be a bit mentally unstable.
Summing up, Colossal is nicely presented, it's developed in a really cool fashion and neatly resolved, and it offers a medley of cinema genres that end up being just a good excuse to make the viewer think about how certain human characteristics such as wickedness or courage can be pushed to insane limits. Moreover, it is original and very entertaining, with rather amusing parts and some very exciting ones, and it was, as mentioned above, among the best products I saw in the past SSIFF. Recommended.
* The press conference you can access with the link at the top is interesting, but don't watch it if you haven't seen the film yet since, as it often happens with press conferences, it contains loads of spoilers (including one in one of my questions and even more in Austin Stowell's answer. My apologies).
