Pseudo-superheroes, Kaiju romance, and Charlie Hunnam? Sounds like a good week.
While Legendary Studios and Warner Bros. continue construction on their admirable Godzilla-centric “Monsterverse,” indie genre darling Nacho Vigalondo’s rom-com about the nature of power molding true worth through the activity of giant rampaging monsters might just trump every contribution to the Kaiju genre of the last 10 years.
Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, a washed up journalist in the
midst of a bout with alcoholism that has recently cost her relationship with
her boyfriend and left her returning to her hometown to pull herself back
together, working in a bar owned by her childhood friend Oscar, played by Jason
Sudekis.
When Gloria learns that a special field in her hometown
grants her control of a Korean Monster when standing within it during the early
hours of the morning, she struggles to tame her more irresponsible impulses for
the good of the people threatened by her presence, while trying to get to the
bottom of what’s causing the strange phenomenon and figure out whether or not
she’s the only one that can control it.
Everything about “Colossal’s” concept oozes the sort of late
Heisei/Millennium era kaiju flick that would have come and disappeared in the
international box office while going on to develop a cult following and
regardless of the film’s western origins and social norm, this may very well be
its fate.
It’s only a pity that a gamble wasn’t taken on getting the
movie to a wider release because no matter how weird its premise is, “Colossal”
is easily the whole package and then some.
Hathaway perfectly straddles the line between that of a well
meaning and loveably charismatic screw up in need of a reality call and a
determined and admirable woman with a bizarre chance at redemption that you actually
want to see live up to her potential.
You legitimately root for her to pull herself together
through her highs and lows while the scenarios and relationships that she
stumbles through not only reveal more about herself and the root of her
problems but that not everything may necessarily be as it all seems.
Dan Stevens plays her estranged boyfriend who blows up over
her behavior at the start of the movie in such a fashion that anybody in a
toxic relationship would probably find fully relatable and sympathetic, if not
somewhat cathartic, only for the tables to be turned later on if the viewer can
catch just how off his reactions seem to be when the nature of their relationship
changes.
Ditto goes for Jason Sudekis, whose connection to the plot
through Hathaway takes an unexpected turn into dark territory that may not be sympathetic
but isn’t necessarily unrecognizable for anybody familiar with self-loathing.
“Colossal” is a hard film to truly do justice via
description, not simply because the oddness of its premise makes it challenging
to articulate in a particularly attractive manner but because so much of its
brilliance subtly bubbles to the surface assisted by the element of surprise as
you watch it.
Regardless of whatever subtext that you can take away from
it however, its heartfelt and plenty humorous enough to make for a great time
on surface value alone and coming off of a year of billion dollar box-office
bombing sequels and reboots that nobody asked for, its down right refreshing
and easily my favorite film of the year thus far.
9 Kaiju Bitch Slaps out of 10
British explorer Percy Fawcett’s obsession with uncovering lost civilizations in South America led to a great deal of cartographical and archaeological accomplishments but ultimately played a role in his demise during the early 20th century.
Although such a tragedy sounds like a potential exploration
of the psychological rabbit hole that ambitions can lead down, “The Lost City
of Z” ultimately chooses to remember where the actual drive for Fawcett’s accomplishments
came from and celebrate his work as it was intended to be; inspiring humanity
to continue piecing together the anthropological puzzle that could hold answers
valuable to both its past and its future.
To this end, Charlie Hunnam portrays the aforementioned
explorer through his fascination with Amazonian civilization and disillusionment
of British high society on the cusp of World War I, struggling to chase the philosophical
questions that plague him while striving to do right by his family in a very
old fashioned epic adventure film.
“The Lost City of Z” is well over 2 hours long and makes use
of every second that it has, covering Fawcett’s progression from an off duty
soldier after a good pay day and elevated societal status for the good of his
wife and children to a man fighting to balance his responsibilities just as his
own world view has been opened up in ways that he could never have conceived
of.
The film covers the many adventurous aspects of Fawcett’s
expeditions into Brazil as well as his fighting in the trenches of the Great
War and through all of the film’s tension and unpredictability for those
uninitiated to his achievements, Hunnam’s performance commands the screen and
carries the film from start to finish so beautifully that I would have happily sat
in my seat for an extra 20 minutes just to savor his journey a bit more.
That savoring is what the film is truly about. While “The Lost
City of Z” is rather straight forward in its structure, its gripping set up,
assembled by a masterful sense of direction and editing, and a stupendous supporting
cast of talented character actors, including up and comer Tom Holland and
Robert Pattinson giving the best performance of his career thus far, make it
feel like the sort of authentically intimate and rewarding experience that
directors like Franklin Schaffner and David Lean would have put together in
their heyday.
Although it’s not without its minor technical hiccups here
and there in the form of transitioning the story from differing points in
Fawcett’s life, the film’s infectious feeling of vibrancy and audacity to chase
truth even in the face of doubt from everything one knows and loves, is
undeniable and earned.
8 River Rafting Expeditions out of 10
So with 2 glowing films back to back, there of course had to be an unfortunate counterbalance to the scales. And what an unfortunate counter it is.
“Sleight” is the kind of movie that I not only wanted to
love but tried my absolute damndest to.
Following the life of a young street magician capable of
more than he lets on and struggling to take care of his younger sister after
the unfortunate death of their parents, the film plays with tenants of the
superhero genre that I hold so dear to my heart and stars Jacob Latimore, an
young upcomer that I’ve been championing for some time now in a low budget film
with indie sensibilities that one would hope inspire some out of the box
thinking.
I saw so much potential in it that I snubbed the opportunity
to mock “The Circle’s” late arrival to the realization of internet privacy
betrayal party. Unfortunately the final results are still less than stellar.
Assuming that the marketing for the film was handled under
more or less false pretenses, its biggest problem is that its dramatically
inert; the only real conflict with the film is Latimore’s character of Bo
standing up to the drug dealer that he reluctantly works for in order to take
more direct agency in his life, the need for which only comes about by the hour
mark of the film’s meager 89 minute length.
When this happens, any tension is undercut by how little
reason you have to care for him to carry out the obvious solution weaponizing
his capabilities.
If even an iota of this truly was meant to dabble with the
lighter side of superhero tropes however, the film falls apart on a fundamental
understanding of its subject matter, something that even the creatively
bankrupt playing field of triple A Hollywood seems to grasp more often than not.
Good superhero stories are NOT about people solving their
problems with super powers. They’re about people working through personal
issues, including superpowers.
For a better example of what this film was likely trying to
do, see the 2012 film “Chronicle” in which gaining superpowers did not fix the
protagonists problems but actually managed to succeed in exacerbating them to
the point of developing a god complex while his aloof and care free cousin is
forced to step into the role of mediator to save him from himself and the
people that would become collateral.
The abilities and the situation that they become drawn to,
draw out their true selves.
The cost of Bo’s abilities come at the expense of a certain
level of study, dedication, and even self-inflicted mutilation but you could
almost cut it entirely out of the plot and only need to rewrite and edit around
less than a quarter of the overall film, which makes it feel like a giant tumor
on the movie’s bare bones and predictable plot, complete with a best friend
that only materializes at the convenience of the plot, a love interest that falls
deeply into his life despite lacking any chemistry whatsoever, and a villain
who starts off as surprisingly multifaceted and diplomatic before dive bombing
into being cartoonish.
And the real shame about all of this is that with just the
slightest bit of imagination, this film could have been a blast and a half to
watch, with little in the way of extra budgetary needs required to come
together well.
What “Sleight” ultimately becomes however, is yet another
solid performance for Latimore’s resume in another string of less than
satisfactory flicks.
5 Magic Hat Rabbits out of 10
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