NOCTURNAL ANIMALS Review

Editing. Editing is key in director Tom Ford's follow-up to his 2009 debut A Single Man titled Nocturnal Animals as the narrative begins by introducing Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) as a woman who seemingly has it all together, but whose world it tears to shreds in less than two hours. It accomplishes such a visceral effect on the viewer due largely to the skill in which it is cut. To unravel the neatly wrapped facade of Morrow's life is to cut back and forth between her present timeline, her past detailing how she reunited and fell in love with first husband, Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), as well as the story in which she is reading. The key factor being the story that she is reading comes to her from Sheffield as a novel he wrote that will soon be published, but as it was inspired by Morrow he thought she deserved to read it first. The book, also titled "Nocturnal Animals", is the story of a family on a road trip whose car is hijacked by a band of troublemakers that includes a nearly unrecognizable Aaron Taylor-Johnson where terrible things happen. The representation of this novel as put to screen is what will come to garner the most attention from the viewer as it is high-tension drama filled with moving and effective plot points as well as performances. What makes Nocturnal Animals, the film, more than just a stirring adaptation of the work within the work though, is the foresight it utilizes in the outside stories and how they will influence our reactions to the actions taking place within that most engaging storyline. How is this accomplished though? How are these two outlying narratives so effective in both supporting and drawing from the narrative that undoubtedly holds the weight of the film on its shoulders? Through the editing. The film is cut in such an extraordinarily unpredictable fashion that, as an audience member, when it cuts we are never allowed to know what it might be cutting to. There are even long pauses that fill the screen with darkness designed to make the audience think a certain segment is over only to drop us back into the same story moments later. This unpredictability not only ups the tension in terms of seeing where certain plot strands might go, but in ultimately structuring the story in such a way that when the payoff for everything each of the three individual storylines has been building to finally arrives it hits you. And I mean really hits you. Nocturnal Animals is an exercise in sheer audacity and nearly every one of its risks pays off.

First Trailer for NOCTURNAL ANIMALS Starring Jake Gyllenhaal

The second directorial effort from fashion designer Tom Ford (A Single Man) was undoubtedly one of my most anticipated of the year and after the largely glowing reviews it received out of both the Venice and Toronto film festivals I am only all the more excited to finally see the follow-up to Ford's striking 2009 debut. With the likes of such top tier talent as Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams in your film it is hard to imagine how one could go completely the wrong way, but given the short teaser for today's full trailer that I saw yesterday and the fact it immediately called to mind Ridley Scott's curiously questionable The Counselor (which had a beyond amazing line-up of stars) I can only be reassured by the positive reviews in that Nocturnal Animals will not share the same fate as that 2013 misfire. With this film, Ford has adapted the Austin Wright novel Tony and Susan with the film actually taking its name from a story within that story. In the film, Adams plays Los Angeles-based art dealer, Susan Morrow, who receives a novel called "Nocturnal Animals" that was written by her ex (Gyllenhaal) after her husband (Armie Hammer) leaves on a business trip. From here, the narrative is described as, "weaving in and out of this book that can be interpreted as a veiled threat." The idea of seeking revenge or vindication from an ex-lover is nothing new, but doing it through such symbolic ways as mailing her a copy of your book that intentionally elicits many an interpretations is certainly an intriguing way to go about framing such a tale. The full trailer certainly makes such intrigue all the more inviting as its clear Ford has again brought his impeccable sense of style to the medium of film and each of the high profile performers seem to be giving invested performances. Here's to hoping the positive reviews can be trusted on this one. Nocturnal Animals also stars Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Laura Linney, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Karl Glusman, Andrew Riseborough, Michael Sheen, Imogen Waterhouse, and opens on December 9th, 2016.

THE NEON DEMON Review

Though Nicolas Winding Refn is hardly a household name his films have come to feel like certain kinds of events. It is in the aura he has created around himself and his ambitions that his movies now feel like these mythic, untouchable experiences that take us into a usually weird and demented world that is largely metaphorical for the one the rest of us exist in. With what is his tenth feature film the director has made his first film with a female lead as he's chosen to explore his inner sixteen year-old girl. In his mind, if he were a girl that is, Refn would seem to want to exist in the world of high fashion and be a fashion model as The Neon Demon takes us through the age old tale of the young, pretty southern girl who travels to Los Angeles to make her dreams of becoming a star come true. This is an interesting choice as Refn adopts a rather straightforward narrative for this film while still remaining experimental through the visual design and the way he integrates interesting visual approaches to convey many of the tropes of such a story. Set in this world of supermodels, pretentious designers, and even more pretentious photographers everything about the film feels elitist-the world should belong to the beautiful. The substance matters little if the surface isn't beautiful enough to stop you in the first place. Ruled over by the few chosen gatekeepers of taste we willingly follow our protagonist despite knowing, that in Refn's hands, there is no way this ends well. What Refn is actually attempting to say (if anything) with the film is anyone's guess as it's clear he means for his works to elicit multiple interpretations, but given the more linear structure and straightforward fashion in which the film has been edited it would appear Refn wants us to believe he is discussing one thing while slyly delivering something else. These intentions don't really come forward until the third act though, when the sleight of hand turns into full on spectacle with the film simultaneously becoming less effective as a result. The slow paced, meditative quality of the first two acts that analyzes the ins and outs of the modeling and fashion industries through the innocent eyes of sixteen year-old Jesse (Elle Fanning) is abruptly disposed of in favor of slasher movie conventions thus making the strong build-up and examination of such a world feel short-changed by the abrupt action that concludes the film. Refn somehow still manages slight poignancy, but with not as unique a perception as he initially sets up.