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Superrodan posted:
The film's finale frames Gloria as a force to be reckoned with in the same way that the kaiju are going as far as the framing her with an almost superhero like silhouette. If we take the kaiju being aspirational figures for scared children and then take the ending being Gloria being done with unimpressive men making her feel lesser than we can take that the Korean girl's doll did manifest in the park that day. It just didn't have to manifest into anything new because Gloria was already there.
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May 7, 2017 05:08
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 11:17 |
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I will add though that I read the film as playing with indie comedy expectations with Gloria as much as they do with Oscar. The beginning of the film really paints Gloria as being similar to Marvis in Young Adult, and makes her boyfriend a pretty sympathetic figure. But as the film goes on, I think what we discover is that Gloria isn't someone who is stuck in childhood, she's someone who fell from grace. She was this really talented kid. She was a successful writer. And importantly, she did get out of that lovely town. I'm not trying to whitewash over her flaws as a character. It's more that I think the film is suspicious of indie comedy's one size-fits-all solution of "just grow up." And yeah, part of that is that the film feels that advice is disingenuous to give to ladies because it implies that there is no other force other than themselves holding them back. The fact is that the grow up metaphor of becoming a giant kaiju presents a lot of what people view as growing up to be more superficial than actual growth. The reveal in the hotel scene is that, yes, Gloria is a mess, but her boyfriend may not be that far removed from Oscar. He's not as outwardly abusive, but also keeps moving the goal posts for what he claims he actually wants her to be. The ending of the film for me isn't indicating that Gloria is still hosed up. It's just a rejection of the "You grew up, everything is fine" ending. Because being grown up isn't about just checking some boxes and feeling big like it is for Oscar. It's loving hard and stressful and takes work and is often not fun. Gloria is still an alcoholic at the end and has to actually face that without the drama of the giant monster fight. Timeless Appeal fucked around with this message at 19:13 on May 7, 2017 |
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May 7, 2017 19:10
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I think part of your original response was because some of the language I used sort of hinted at Gloria being a role model which wasn't really my intent. The film does purposefully film her like a superhero and provide audio and visual cues that make her comparable to the kaiju. I get and appreciate the experience you're bringing to the film, but I don't think you're read totally meshes up. I think outside of the kaiju stuff or even the gender politics, Colossal is a bait and switch on indie comedy cliches. It presents itself as a story about a woman stuck in childhood who needs to grow up, but that's not really true. Gloria was by all accounts successful and talented. Like I said, it's a fall from grace. One thing that I think that's mostly been ignored is that she is in the reality of the film really, really smart. The art project we see when she was a kid kind of indicates that her talents weren't just writing, but really how she navigates the plots portrays this tragedy of wasted genius. I mean the fact that she is able to catch him in the end with such precision is loving amazing. And it's not just fairy tale logic. We literally see her figure out insane proportional reasoning while facing off against a giant robot. For me, it's a story about reclaiming greatness. I think for you, your read on the film has Oscar and Gloria being two sides of the same coin, and I really can't agree with that.
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May 9, 2017 03:33
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