Colossal

 Gloria (Ann Hathaway) is struggling to find work and her hectoring boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) kicks her out of his New York apartment. She goes back to her childhood home town where she reconnects with her school friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who is now running his father's bar. A giant monster mysteriously begins terrorising Seoul and Gloria realises (implausibly) that she is to blame.

 This is an exceedingly odd film. We know how talented Ann Hathaway is, so it's odd to see her here in a role that feels beneath her. Gloria is not a fantastically drawn character. She mopes, she complains, she gets drunk. It's actually Sudeikis who delivers the best performance, believably moving from concerned friend to sinister lunatic as the picture progresses. One scene in the bar late on exhibits a genuine sense of menace that will stay with me for some time.

There are some interesting themes at work here (misogyny, abuse, the suffocation of small town life) but most of them seem to be touched upon fleetingly in an uneven storyline. Large sections go by with the languid pace of a "mumblecore" movie. The indie-movie meets disaster film format leads to a decent finale but it all feels a little bit too little too late as a decent premise for a short film is stretched out unsuccessfully to a full length feature. There are things to enjoy here and it's difficult to think of another movie like it, but it didn't quite gel for me. Overall, Colossal is an admirable failure.