Colossal

[projekktor id=’27762′]

Written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Colossal is a different take on the monster movie genre. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and stars Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, and Tim Blake Nelson.

Gloria (Hathaway) is an ordinary woman who, after losing her job and being kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend, is forced to leave her life in New York and move back to her hometown. When news reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, Korea, Gloria gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this far-off phenomenon. As events begin to spin out of control, Gloria must determine why her seemingly insignificant existence has such a colossal effect on the fate of the world.

Talking with The Verge, Vigalondo explained how he came up with his monster/rom-com idea. “Initially, I wanted to make a monster movie. I had this crazy idea about this monster mimicking the movements of someone as a giant avatar on the opposite side of the world. That idea became a chance for me to take a realistic take on a monster movie, without raising a huge budget. To make a movie this way, we can see the movie through iPhones and TVs. We don’t need to have a huge budget and throw it against people’s eyes. It’s a smaller take and more humble, and I knew I could make that. That was the initial idea. But it didn’t become a potential film until the characters came. With Gloria came Oscar, and once those two characters were in front of me, and I figured out why they were fighting, the whole movie became real. This funky premise was just something that can be funny at some points. But it needed the characters to turn it back into something interesting.”

Colossal is rated 14A.