It's been a while since I watched this movie and I was genuinely surprised that I thought I liked it. I mean, I'm also the first to admit to be easily distracted by beautiful cinematography, music scores and actors I enjoy seeing (Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson really are exceptional and hold at least half of the movie together with their acting!) and I think those three aspects are what I remember liking, because the plot is.. questionable on many different levels.
For me personally this is also a great example for how much I learned in the past couple of years about portrayal of violence against women or how rape/murder of women are used as plot devices - and frankly, I don't want to see it anymore, especially when it's done in such a glorifying, male-gazey and sexualized way.
The most infuriating thing in this movie though, is the fact that it implies Susan (Amy Adams) deserves to be punished and unhappy because she divorced her husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) and unknowingly to him aborted their child. And then nineteen years later her then ex-husband sends her the manuscript for his novel in which he shows how her choices/decisions back then made him feel by comparig it to the rape and murder of his fictional wife and daughter?
Anyway, I'm kind of curious to read the 1993 novel this movie is based on ("Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright), just to see how everything is handled in there..
another day, another movie by tom ford with abel korzeniowski composing that leaves me wondering what the fuck i just watched and how the hell to classify the way it made me feel. i mean, obviously it's an amazing movie. just not necessarily a ride my emotional processing skills were prepared for. jake was definitely my favorite of the cast but aaron taylor johnson did a great job and gave a performance light years beyond the roles he usually executes. amy was also amazing, playing a woman at times impossible to empathize with and at other times truly heartbreaking. the cinematography and score were perfect, duh. there were a couple of jump scares that worked surprisingly well and set the tone for the high intensity emotions involved in each situation, so they didn't feel out of place at all. most importantly, though, armie hammer was disgustingly beautiful during every single moment he spent on screen. an actual movie critic could probably say something to the way everything was filmed and how it made for a stark contrast between grit and polish, youth and age, and so on -- but i definitely have no leg to stand on there, so i stick to what i know and that's 'damn, armie hammer is a work of art'
"Nocturnal Animals" is that rare movie that leaves you feeling all kind of different emotions and thoughts. Disturbing is one and the other is riveting. Beautifully shot, but grimy and dusty to look at. And it's easily one of my favorite movies of 2016.
The performances from everyone was terrific and I do mean all the cast. Amy Adams is an excellent actress and here she once again proves that. I love the little details to her character that gives it more depth and with the long break of silence that boils up her emotions. Adams dose it again and she will continue blowing my socks off.
Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhall are one of the best working actors of this generation. And in this movie, both of them deliver such a raw and grounded performance that every actor would dream of playing.
But the real stand out for me has to go to an actor that I've be heavily criticizing for years now. Because if you asked me about a year ago of what I think of this actor, I would say he's one of the worst actors ever. Very one note and bland. He was the worst part of "Kick-Ass", "Albert Nobbs", "Kick-Ass 2", "Godzilla", and "Avengers 2". But after seeing him "Nocturnal Animals", I take back everything I said about Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He was incredible in this movie and the performance itself stuck with me for days. I mean, Gyllenhaal, Shannon, and Adams are great as always, but I was honestly more impress with Taylor-Johnson more, as he was unrecognizable in the role.
By the way, this is Tom Ford's second movie and that alone is just mind-boggling. Ford brilliantly puts you in the nightmarish situations of the characters and makes it look effortless. I had a David Lynch and Hitchcock vibe from this. The style, suspense, and the substance feels very similar from those directors, but it's use here to craft paralleling storylines of both fiction and non-fiction.
Review by Matthew Luke BradyBlockedParent2020-07-13T14:57:09Z
"Nocturnal Animals" is that rare movie that leaves you feeling all kind of different emotions and thoughts. Disturbing is one and the other is riveting. Beautifully shot, but grimy and dusty to look at. And it's easily one of my favorite movies of 2016.
The performances from everyone was terrific and I do mean all the cast. Amy Adams is an excellent actress and here she once again proves that. I love the little details to her character that gives it more depth and with the long break of silence that boils up her emotions. Adams dose it again and she will continue blowing my socks off.
Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhall are one of the best working actors of this generation. And in this movie, both of them deliver such a raw and grounded performance that every actor would dream of playing.
But the real stand out for me has to go to an actor that I've be heavily criticizing for years now. Because if you asked me about a year ago of what I think of this actor, I would say he's one of the worst actors ever. Very one note and bland. He was the worst part of "Kick-Ass", "Albert Nobbs", "Kick-Ass 2", "Godzilla", and "Avengers 2". But after seeing him "Nocturnal Animals", I take back everything I said about Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He was incredible in this movie and the performance itself stuck with me for days. I mean, Gyllenhaal, Shannon, and Adams are great as always, but I was honestly more impress with Taylor-Johnson more, as he was unrecognizable in the role.
By the way, this is Tom Ford's second movie and that alone is just mind-boggling. Ford brilliantly puts you in the nightmarish situations of the characters and makes it look effortless. I had a David Lynch and Hitchcock vibe from this. The style, suspense, and the substance feels very similar from those directors, but it's use here to craft paralleling story-lines of both fiction and non-fiction.