Colossal, a new black comedy starring Anne Hathaway, opens in UK cinemas today and critics are calling it a genre-defying treat.
The Spanish writer-director's film sees the American actress playing Gloria, an unemployed writer and borderline alcoholic.
When her boyfriend Tim, played by Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens, kicks her out after one too many benders, she is forced to return to her home town.
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Gloria reunites with an old friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) who offers her a job in his bar, but as she continues her drinking, she is disturbed by news reports of a reptilian monster terrorising Seoul in South Korea.
Starting to suspect that her own behaviour has somehow caused the monster to appear, she has to work out how her life is linked to the fate of the world.
Nick De Semlyen in Empire calls Colossal "a highly original concoction that plays out like a cross between Sundance-friendly indie drama and schlocky B pic".
The critic says the film goes to "some weird places" and there are "mind-bending twists in store", but it's "an ingenious way to explore such weighty themes as abusive relationships, empathy and addiction".
De Semlyen adds that there are plenty of funny moments, even though the film warps into "something as dark as it is gripping".
David Sims in The Atlantic says monster movies have always had their grand metaphors – "Godzilla captured the horrors of the emerging nuclear age".
In Colossal, he explains, the monster is about the manifestation of one person's fears and insecurities.
Of course, the idea of making an individual's petty struggles an international catastrophe seems absurd, Sims admits, but that's the point.
Colossal is "a big mess of ideas", he says, but it's also "funny and haunting". The film is a "bizarre thrill-ride" that's "among the most beguiling movies of the year".
Its director Vigalondo "demonstrates that even the dumbest genres can be used to profound ends", says David Edelstein on Vulture. Rather than cheapening serious things it kicks them "to the next metaphoric level".
A woman finding her inner strength is inspiring, says Edelstein. "But a woman finding her inner giant monster who kicks butt – that's just so cool."
Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent isn't convinced. He says Colossal is "an ugly mish-mash" in which "two storytelling styles continually chafe against each other".
Macnab says the film also has a credibility problem, not because of the monster, but because Hathaway is such a strong screen presence it's "hard to believe in her as such a weak and needy type".
