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Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, November 18th 2016) Movie

Discussion in 'Entertainment Forum' started by iCarly Rae Jepsen, Jul 25, 2016.

  1. iCarly Rae Jepsen

    run away with me Platinum

    follow up to A Single Man
    starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Armie Hammer, Ellie Bamber and Laura Linney

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  2. smoke4thecaper

    out of context reference Supporter

    Wow, great cast. Definitely looking forward to this.
     
  3. iCarly Rae Jepsen

    run away with me Platinum

    won Grand Jury Prize at Venice, surprised this has played at two festivals without us getting a trailer yet
     
  4. brandon_260

    Trusted Prestigious

    Pretty curious about this. Notices from the critics I trust and follow have been pretty average to unenthusiastic, but I want to see this for the visual flair at least.
     
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  6. iCarly Rae Jepsen

    run away with me Platinum

     
  7. Looks good
     
  8. iCarly Rae Jepsen

    run away with me Platinum

     
  9. StevenW92

    Regular

    This is superb. The leading performances from Gyllenhaal and Shannon were fantastic. I would have like to have seen more of Edward and Susan's relationship though.

    Also, this has the most effective yet randomly placed jump scare I've seen in a long time.
     
    trevorshmevor likes this.
  10. mike1885

    Trusted Supporter

    Jealous you got to see this already. Based on the trailers I'm still not exactly sure what this is about, but it still looks great to me.
     
  11. StevenW92

    Regular

    Yeah, this is one of those rare treats where we get it in the UK first. It opened nationwide on Friday.

    I had little idea what to expect from it. I only ended up seeing this because the showing of The Accountant I intended to see was sold out.
     
  12. Nathan

    Always do the right thing. Supporter

    The opening minutes are stunning and bold. The rest of the film is fairly routine in comparison, but it's still very good. Tom Ford has detractors who say he's an empty, cold, visual stylist, but here things only felt empty and cold when it felt intentional. He connected the storytelling and thematics very, very well, with one notable exception in the ending. While it worked thematically and character-wise, Gyllenhaal standing Adams up at the end lacked the dramatic punch to really sell everything that came before. I don't think it's a major flaw, I even like how it works as a statement about how petty revenge truly is, but given the stakes of the novel and the stakes of when Adams left Gyllenhaal's character, standing her up at a restaurant just doesn't match up dramatically.
    I can't sing Amy Adams' praises high enough, and Gyllenhaal was fantastic as well. They juxtaposed very nicely, his high-intensity, overwrought, emotional performance contrasted to her quiet, anxious, restraint. Michael Shannon was exceptional.
     
  13. drewinseries

    Drew

    Respectfully disagree. To me that highlighted a lot of Edward's anger and feelings towards Susan. How he believed she believed she needed to live a certain life, how he was able to feel she's come to regret it, to highlight her materialistic attitude and her lust against love. By him not showing up and how we were shown her grief in that, Edward was able to show her through his story his own grief of not being able to "protect" his family, being his wife and unborn child. His greatest revenge I think was getting her excited and possibly optimistic about meeting him after her reading a work of his she connected to. Getting her excited to maybe love his acclaim versus him. Not showing was the biggest punch he could pull. When I saw the camera panning out I kept saying to myself "please roll credits, please roll credits."
    This makes 2/2 for Ford for me. I hope he continues to make films.
     
  14. Nathan

    Always do the right thing. Supporter

    I actually agree, and said the ending works thematically and in its characterization. Where it doesn't live up to the rest of the film for me is dramatically, when compared to the life or death stakes of the novel and the way Adams' character left Gyllenhaal with the abortion and leaving him for another man, standing her up just isn't on that level at all. I even like the ending in ways, I think it highlights the ultimate pettiness of revenge and it absolutely forces Adams character to confront herself in isolation and why she's alone and I like all of that. It's just... she got stood up for a date. Especially given the daring nature of the first few minutes, the last few minutes are routine and while they absolutely work, getting stood up just isn't as dramatically/visually interesting as the rest of the film.
     
  15. airik625

    we've seen the shadow of the axe before Supporter

    Really excited about this. Cast looks great. Jake Gyllenhaal has become one of my favorite actors recently.

    How was A Single Man? I've never seen it.
     
  16. suicidesaints

    Trusted Prestigious

    A Single Man is definitely worth watching.
     
  17. iCarly Rae Jepsen

    run away with me Platinum

    the acting in this was so good, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Shannon both seemed like they were having so much fun and they were great
     
  18. jkauf

    Prestigious Supporter

    Loved Aaron Taylor-Johnson in this. The film itself was only okay, unfortunately.
     
  19. EngineDown

    formerly known as chill yoshi

    catching this now, expectations aren't high but we'll see
     
  20. EngineDown

    formerly known as chill yoshi

    hmmm so about 1/2 the movie that was pretty decent and half was Really Fucking Bad
     
  21. Nathan

    Always do the right thing. Supporter

    What worked/didn't for you? The more I think about the film the more I like it, though as solid as it is the whole isn't as exceptional as the opening sequence.
     
  22. EngineDown

    formerly known as chill yoshi

    thought everything about texas worked really well, as did the overall style of the film. a lot of the performances were great in that portion of the film. pretty much everything else fell flat for me. ironically, gyllenhaal was kinda a chore in the novel portion but great in the flashbacks. what was with the choice to cover most of adams face throughout the movie with her hair? and the excessive breathing? why waste armie hammer, laura linney, michael sheen and jena malone in those roles? what was the phone call to her daughter supposed to show - a parallel to the novel, that the abortion didn't take, that there will be another cycle of daughters becoming their mothers? lots of interesting threads here that never get expanded on at all and are kinda fumbled out of the gate. unfortunately, it seems he places way more importance on aesthetic than story or dialogue.
     
  23. Nathan

    Always do the right thing. Supporter

    The "style over substance" criticism of Ford doesn't hold water to me. A Single Man is a great character mediation on grief and sexuality, and Nocturnal Animals has a lot to say on guilt and revenge. How guilt manifests as insecurity over our shortcomings, how who we are in that moment we feel guilt for, what we did or didn't do, it's who we really are, for better or worse. Adams and Gyllenhaal's characters were fantastic juxtapositions on two sides of that, their arcs operating at a thematic inverse that I think worked really well. Even the last scene, which initially didn't work for me, I've come around on mostly as its ultimate pettiness amidst the dramatic swell of epic music creates a disconnect that underlines the central thematics. As for your issues with Sheen and Hammer and them, I dunno. Notable actors in small roles is never an issue for me, it happens all the time, I don't think it's a waste. Hammer was asked to be a Ken Doll, he did it. Sheen and Malone contributed to the cold, manufactured, hollow atmosphere Adams lives and works in. Your other issues are valid, there are tangential threads Ford touches on and doesn't really follow up on, but the central thesis is more than solid and holds up the whole for me. The Texas storyline wouldn't be nearly as rich without its connection to the LA storyline. Adams was brilliant, as she always is, in a restrained performance where her style, her outfits, her hair precisely laid over her face, that surface presentation has overcome her and become her. She's become artifice because that's what her whole world is. I know the Texas stuff is more memorable, Shannon is just perfect and Aaron Tyler Johnson is lively so the Texas stuff feels more energetic and urgent, but it needs that quiet, subtle LA stuff to pop, and I think the film is clever in its structure in that the Texas story grabs our attention and is the most viscerally entertaining, but it's not even real, it's not actually happening. This is really Amy Adams story and she's going through some fascinating stuff that I hope doesn't go missed by viewers.

    The daughter scene, yeah, probably the most out of place thing in there. It doesn't land, it's the one part of the film with no discernible resolution, even implied.
     
  24. mirrorsandfevers

    what is the vibe?

    How Amy Adams Reads A Book
     
  25. imthegrimace

    the poster formally known as thesheriff Supporter

    Just got back from seeing this and overall I enjoyed it but still sifting through it all.