![]() ![]() Susan has asked Edward to get dinner with her. With that said, let’s dive into that enigmatic final scene. The novel is an act of catharsis, as most art is. Ostensibly, Edward’s using the story of Tony to not only express and exorcise the pain he felt at losing Susan but also fantasize about the revenge he would take on her husband/his replacement, Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer). ![]() That is, to me, absolutely a sign of mastery-when you can make the real into the surreal and the surreal resonate with someone else’s reality. And has been done to death.Īt this point, two or more decades later, Edward has managed to write about himself in a way that would, to anyone who didn’t know him, seem completely fictional. Given her criticism, he probably had been writing about a struggling writer in NYC. Which could seem harsh but… Think about where he was and who he was at the time: a struggling writer in NYC. During one flashback, she reads a draft of a story and tells Edward that he needs to not write about himself. In the film’s middle, Susan has flashbacks to her time with Edward, when they were in their 20s. Content aside, our main clue is that Jake Gyllenhaal plays both Edward and Tony. The story of Tony Hastings represents how Edward felt about what happened between him and Susan (Amy Adams)-another man came and took Susan from him. But it damn well should be.A lot of viewers and critics have rightly pointed out the metaphor that is Edward Sheffield’s novel. Because it challenges and makes you think, it's not for everybody. ![]() Adams, Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Isla Fisher all blend seamlessly into the dark palette of Ford's noirish frame, their characters sympathetic in their attempt to find a glimmer of love and/or redemption in a perpetually Nocturnal world. Instead, he smartly puts his gifts for atmosphere and casting to expert use, unraveling Austin Wright's novel as a fetching puzzle box that keeps puzzling you a week later. Having proven himself a sleek, and skillful storyteller with A Single Man, Tom Ford could have gone more mainstream for his follow-up (for most, the sophomore slump is a true concern). Indeed, Nocturnal Animals isn't so much as a Who-Done-It? as a Did-It-Happen-At-All? And that's the brilliance of this unique thriller which, frustratingly, isn't for all tastes. The most menacing element for Susan isn't how realistic the harrowing experience at the center of the novel seems, however, but if it's an allegory for something cruel that she did to Tony. ![]() So too does Nocturnal Animals, putting forth all-but-soulless Angelinos living in a pallid disconnected post-9/11 and banking crisis world where the only thing grimmer is a violent flight of fiction. Heavily influenced by the German expressionists (themselves no strangers to post-war cynicism), the style presented a shadowy world rife with fatalism and dread. In fact, this style came about in post-World War II America and reflected the general pessimism and uncertainty permeating a great deal of the populace. The term film noir gets tossed around a lot in movie reviewing, making it almost a catch-all for any flick that has a night scene and a criminal element. Stylish like the designer-turned-screenwriter who also directed it. A challenging 'read' like the manuscript written by Susan's ex, Tony. Steeped in darkness like the latter half of the title suggests. Avant-garde like the artwork it's main character, Susan, sells. Featuring a story within a story, one darker than the last, Nocturnal Animals is many things. In this R-rated thriller, a wealthy art gallery owner (Amy Adams) receives a draft of her ex-husband's (Jake Gyllenhaal) gritty crime manuscript and finds herself unable to put it down as she gets wrapped up in the narrative. A very different Animal from a very distinctive visionary, this handsome beast of a film noir thriller is twisty more than tidy but the stirring performances and intoxicating tale dare you to look away. ![]()
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