I think this one came on the radar first due to the rather fucked up but interesting movie Timecrimes by director Vigalondo nine(!) years earlier. One of those, hey, this is a pretty cool concept, let’s see what he does next. Kinda fell off the radar, as most “foreign” directors do in the Americanas. From Spain, by the way. Total non-related shout-out to the bands Green Desert Water and the Evil Spanish Rockabilly of Guadalupe Plata, but anyways, this movie popped up on the radar. A modern Kaiju film, in Engrish you say? Sure, let’s check this sucker out. Like the main character’s tic, kinda left me scratchin the ole noggin afterwards. Well, maybe til the last 10 minutes. Then I was like what the shit, mang.
Gloria, yeah, she’s a total mess. Current boyfriend boots her. With No options, she goes back to her hometown. Old family house, empty for awhile now. No prospects. But she runs into Oscar, from back in the grade-school days, took over his dad’s local bar after passing. Probably not the best to take a job waitressing, being the blackout drunk she seems to be, but fuckit, it’s work. Old habits are hard to break though. Then some weird shit happens in Seoul. The Korea one. Some real Godzilla kindsa shit. Then It’s a slow roll of giant monsters and bad relationship examples and too many drinks at the bar after closing that finally gives us the reveal how it’s all tied together. Suspectingly.
Allegory. I know I gots that one right this time, even if the word came to me while I was takin a leak after watching the final suspect scene play out. What’s framed as a weird giant monster movie taking out Seoul while the main characters are...not even close to there, at least realizations to the actual nature of the giant monster destructions finally take shape. The rest is just kind of an odd allegory for something else. It’s not subtle. And like giant monsters taking out cities, not to be taken lightly either. Interesting but decent choice for Anne Hathaway as the lead here, plus some Tim Blake Nelson and SNL alum Jason Sudeikis. Who is Not Funny at all here. Not saying it should be an amusing theme for a movie. But damn. Maybe I’ll throw on Ms. 45 just to cheer myself up a bit. Looking at the other Vigalondo movies since Timecrimes and considering this, not sure I’ll be visiting his other works. But you? Knock yourself out.
