Nocturnal Animals

Watched this on a whim. Great modern film noir featuring a story within a story. The performances are brilliant across the board, as you would expect (just look at the cast) and the stories themselves are really captivating. Violent, hard to watch, heartbreaking, just a great ride. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for a psychological roller coaster.

A one of a kind film. A must see twice, at least. There are so many textures in the anatomy of this film. This would be an excellent film to study in a filmmaking class as everything is so... "Air Tight" Seamus McGarvey is one of my favorite camera people in film and he did well in this film. The interior lighting made the actors look beautiful, not that the "totally hot" Amy Adams needs any help in that dept. There is a shot of her in a restaurant scene, about halfway through, it is one of the most beautiful shots I've seen since Christina Ricci lying in the moss in Sleepy Hollow. There is a perfect balance of style throughout the film. I often get bored watching films but not with NA, perhaps because of the score and or script. There are several storylines that cycle their way through the film, each subplot offering something a little different. There is a West Texas Ektachromey thread that has lots of eye candy and grit. The suspense makes your heart flutter ala Blue Ruin. Michael Shannon plays a role unlike most actors would given the chance to play a Texas Lawman. There is a subtle smile at one point in Shannon's performance that kicks some major butt. Other parts of the story seem to be thematic of legacy and the internal struggles of the characters are profound and often displayed through performances void of dialogue. There is a large scope of time covered within this story which I personally related to, i.e. college, being a child, a parent, an aspiring professional and just a human. Wardrobe and score deserve a hat-tip. Oh and props to Tom Ford, if everything is the director's fault you could say he is responsible for Nocturnal Animals. I am going to place this film in my top fifteen of all time, somewhere between The American and The Hunter. Oh and Amy Adams is hot!

A satisfyingly twisted tale. A woman working through her second marriage receives a fictional manuscript from her ex and, while reading it, connects the events in the story to their troubled relationship years earlier. What fuels this film is less the events (after all, we are watching someone read a book for all intents and purposes) than the connections the characters have with each other. Graciously, the actors playing these roles are quite skilled and can emote what they cannot say. And it becomes clear quite early on that this novel is more than just a metaphor played out in the past. More on that I won't say. Again, the acting is high-quality and the stories (on the surface and embedded) are compelling - this film is quite lean and revs up quickly. On a technical level, the artistic detail - color, photography, lighting, etc. - is impressive from the outset. The editing is also quite good - tricky for a film shot from multiple perspectives. And it sticks the ending as well. Overall, I would recommend it.

Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is a wealthy and successful art gallery owner. She lives in a beautiful, albeit soulless house, with her handsome but aloof (and philandering) husband (Armie Hammer). She attends lustrous dinner parties, hosted by equally jaded people. Here’s the thing: Susan is miserable — almost suicidal. At least that’s what she and her friend imply during a conversation. But things reach a head when the past revisits her in the form of a manuscript. Her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) sends her a review copy of his novel, due for publication soon, and a note stating that she was the “inspiration” behind the story. This is clear to her from the book’s title — NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. Edward used to call her a “nocturnal animal” due to her insomnia. And then there’s the story itself, and the main character named Tom. Though it bears no resemblance to their life together, Susan notices bits and pieces of the things that led to their divorce, and how he’s felt about it. The woman who plays his wife in the book (Isla Fisher) has an eerie resemblance to her, and Tom’s lamentations have a lot to do with what transpired between Susan and Edward in real life. She never believed in him, thought she was above him, and then she cheated and left him for her current husband. In the course of the book, one of the sociopaths represents post-breakup Susan. I won’t go further to avoid spoilers, only to say that she thought the grass would be greener on the other side. Is it too late to reconnect and make amends?This is such a strange and unique thriller. The opening scene is so shocking — and so unconventional — that I almost stopped watching, but I’m glad I carried on. The strange opening scene is far from the only interesting thing in this film. This is a story within a story within a story, where you discover things through layers upon layers of storytelling from different points of view. We see the novel in action from Susan’s eye. Something sets this interwoven story apart from all the others — there’s no voiceover narrative. No one is telling you what’s happening. You just watch as if it were its own movie. This fascinated me. Edward’s novel is a noir-style southern thriller, and the book is bleak, shocking and twisty all the way to the end. In between scenes, we get snippets of Susan’s current life, from her estranged relationship with her daughter to the emptiness of her career life. We also get flashbacks of her life with Edward before and after they marry, and how their differences tear them apart. He’s a dreamer, she’s a realist. He knows he will be a successful novelist one day — and she doesn’t think he will go far. In this tragic love story, we realize that there must be a balance with realists and dreamers. You can’t be a “realist” to the point of becoming cynical and disillusioned. That’s how people quit their life goals and never feel fulfilled. On the other hand, you shouldn’t dream your life away. Dreams should come with action plans, realistic time frames, and attainable goals. You must also not listen to naysayers, because they will try to turn you into a skeptic like them. I’m a dreamer, but I make sure my dreams don’t stay dreams for too long. This movie resonates so much.Trigger warning: some scenes are really hard to watch. It’s kind of witnessing a nightmare while awake. There’s lots of tension and shocking scenes. If you’re highly sensitive to apathy, cruelty and taunting, then I’d watch this carefully.Now to the upsides and downsides. The cinematography is beautiful. You’ll never be confused with the different time frames and story shifts. As I said earlier, there’s no voiceover narrative in this movie, so the film fully relies on showing instead of telling. Amy Adams’s despondency is so powerful it jumps out at you. Jake Gyllenhaal’s heartbreak and disappointment shows through Edward’s novel. Downsides? Susan’s age. Twenty years had passed since her last contact with Edward, and they started seeing each other while she was in graduate school, which means Susan is now in her mid to late forties. Adams was about thirty-nine or forty when she filmed this, and she looks younger than her age, so they put a lot of heavy makeup on her to make her appear older, while giving her a natural, fresh-faced look in the flashbacks. No woman in her mid to late forties would ever wear blood-red lipstick and dark eye makeup. Why? Because heavy makeup ages you — duh! People that age are more likely to use “Young Susan’s” fresh-faced look, especially if you look young enough to pull it off. I get the symbolism behind Susan’s appearance, but I couldn’t get past this little attention to detail. My other complaint is how there isn’t enough Isla Fisher in the movie. She’s such a beautiful and talented actress. She’s also often confused with Amy Adams (and vice versa), which explains why they picked her for the part. Would have loved to see more of her.That’s all I could think of. This is such a beautiful film! I love movies about books, with stories within stories, as my novels have this format. Another movie I love that’s like this is THE WORDS with Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana and Dennis Quaid. Another good story-within-a-story movie is THE GIRL IN THE BOOK with Emily VanCamp. NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is in a league of its own though. Excellent acting and directing! Tom Ford is miles ahead of most filmmakers. (Yes, Tom Ford, as in the elite fashion designer!) Five Caffè Americanos, with extra Crema!