Colossal

Gloria (Anne Hathaway) parties too hard, drinks too much, and doesn't think about the consequences — that is, until her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) gets sick of her behaviour and throws her out. Unemployed and with nowhere to live, Gloria heads back to her hometown and rekindles a friendship with childhood chum Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who now runs his dad's old bar. Dreams of a fresh start are dashed when Gloria slides back into old habits: she drinks till last call every night with Oscar and his cronies (the hilarious Tim Blake Nelson and Austin Stowell), she stumbles home each night via a playground-sandbox shortcut, and she sleeps through each day till it's time to drink again.

And then one day she emerges from her haze to the news that a giant monster is stomping its way through the panicked metropolis of Seoul.

It's clear that Gloria has awakened to a different world. But what remains for her (and us) to discover is how the real-life monster movie taking place halfway across the world might be somehow connected to her — and how her own small world is about to become stranger still.

In his debut feature, Timecrimes, Nacho Vigalondo flipped tropes on their head and blurred the lines between sci-fi, fantasy, and drama. Here he does it again; what starts out seeming like a gentle and quirky drama turns out to be far more epic in scope, but without ever sacrificing its heart.

Colossal is an impressive and accomplished film that shows Vigalondo is already one of genre film's most creative and inspiring talents.

COLIN GEDDES