Nocturnal Animals Review
Nocturnal Animals Review – Jack Fitzpatrick
It’s safe to say that this one’s a thinker. And at that, it’s a pretty damn good thinker too… I think.
Nocturnal Animals” is the sort of movie that after watching you just have to process it all. It’s the type of movie that challenges you to actually think about it – both while watching as well as long after. It’s the type of movie that you must pay attention to if you want to get anything out of it and it’s the type that isn’t afraid to stray from the mainstream and the conventional. Instead “Nocturnal Animals” is the type of film that has you questioning things like “what did ‘this’ mean?” and “What did ‘that’ mean?” And not necessarily in confusion either, (Mostly) but more so in curiosity. It’s the type of film that you aspire to understand and I think that it may very well be the type of film that deserves to be heavily studied and analysed.
It’s also the type of movie that might leave you feeling a little dissatisfied at first. The type that grows on you. The type that improves with each re-watch. The type where the more you think about it all, the more you actually like it.
(Oh and by ‘you’ I mean me. Duh.)
So anyway let me start off talking about the finer details by speaking about the ‘artistic’ beginning of this film; Well, I’ll just say that “Nocturnal Animals” probably doesn’t start off quite the way that you or anybody else would expect. I won’t speak of any of the specificities (That’s totally a word right?) here but I will say that I personally could have done without it. Without context I’ll just say that the opening credits came off as overly confident and uncomfortably provocative. To me it just seemed extremely irrelevant and added absolutely nothing to my enjoyment of the film whatsoever. Instead it just caught me off guard and established the film in sort of inaccurate light – It gave me a bad first impression.
However once these opening credits eventually come to an end the film finally has a chance to begin. And from here on it didn’t take long for the film to soon greatly hold my interest and keep it through its duration.
It is here where I should probably discuss the general plot of the film… Which may actually prove to be quite a tough task as “Nocturnal Animals” is sort of difficult movie to explain story wise. It’s structured quite unconventionally in form of a few different plots which are all thematically and metaphorically connected. There’s the first of which I’d call something like the ‘Current reality’ story. Perhaps secondary to this, there’s also a story line made up of flashbacks set before this aforementioned story line. And finally, but certainly not least in any way, is what I’d call the ‘Fictional’ story line which takes part inside the writings of a novel within the film and (Thankfully) take up the bulk of the run-time. Confused? On the surface level it can be a little confusing, and at first the film does sort of leave you behind in the dust as it hits the ground running. But with a little – but sufficient – amount of time to play catch up, it’s not too hard to begin to follow along. The film has this unique rhythm and you sort of have to learn what that rhythm is before you can get right in to it – And I think this is one of many reasons to watch this film more than once – The film purposefully uses these different forms of reality and story lines to compare and mirror each other. Within the film, we are shown a strong contrast between a mundane reality and a dramatized fictional one, both of which represent each other in different ways.
And this brings me to my next point; One of the things that I particularly love about this film is how much meaning can be found in every single corner, nook and cranny just beyond the surface of the film. Everything seeps with deeper meanings in forms of metaphorical symbolism and parallels between the different stories within. This makes for a film which is highly ambiguous from the get-go and one of which can be interpreted in countless ways. This however, also makes for a film which could result in being quite divisive. Depending on the way one interprets certain things can actually change the entirety of the film for them… For instance, I won’t spoil anything but I will say that when the film ended I was left disappointed. I thought it wasn’t much of an ending and I wanted it to keep going – That was until my BEAUTIFUL FIANCEE’ whom I saw the film with explained her interpretations of the meaning behind the ending. And with her explanation I couldn’t un-see that version, it made a lot of sense to me – and so it and it actually completely and wholly changed my entire view on the ending. And now I actually really like the ending… It’s hard to explain though without spoiling things! So moving on…
The one thing that I do personally have to say about the downside to all of these double meanings and figurative symbols is that I don’t think I really ‘got’ everything. However I do not think this is a fault of the film, but rather maybe of my own – if not, this is just a film that needs to be watched more than once… Or you know. Maybe I’m an idiot. Also a totally valid possibility.
And if you don’t re-watch it to get more meaning out of it, then you should for the fantastic performances alone. A powerhouse of actors made up of stars including my goddamn movie love, Jake Gyllenhaal who kills it as always. A very different and effective Aaron Taylor Johnson who is easily the highlight of the film; The guy plays such an asshole in the perfect way possible. And Michael Shannon who also does a great job. The rest of the cast all do fine jobs too, but none are quite ever as notable as these three, these others include Armie Hammer (What kind of a fucking awesome name is that by the way?) as well as Amy Adams and Isla Fisher who are clearly and definitely two different people.
*cough cough.
Another strong element which I loved about the film was its capability to remain both slow as well as intense at the same time. Scenes of misfortune, one after the other, which slowly lead to tragedy are seen coming for miles but ultimately lead down these roads to disaster anyway. During scenes such as these it actually had me sitting there in worry. It’s here where my concern for some of the characters was higher than it would be in most films – In many scenes the film seemed like it could head in just about any direction and the discomfort of its unpredictability was actually quite visceral. “Nocturnal Animals” would beautifully set up these scenes which were purposefully uncomfortable and present them in such realistic states. And perhaps the most sickening part of all of this is that it still has you in this deep sense of anticipation. Despite the dark plights of some of the characters, you still undeniably need to see where everything is headed and you need to find out what happens.
The film was also able to constantly keep interesting visually despite being set in a location which one might consider visually boring – I’m always impressed by these sorts of titles that can do this sort of thing such as Breaking Bad and Sicario – The film is mostly set in dry, desert based areas. Where much of it could potentially end up looking the same though, “Nocturnal Animals” instead manages to never start looking old and while doing so pulls off some fantastically poetic imagery. And that being said, I’m sure there was plenty that I missed regarding just the visuals alone that I will need to look out for upon second viewing.
“Nocturnal Animals” is an intellectual’s film. It’s one to think about, interpret and discuss. The film was able to be very disturbing at times and the entire thing was quite depressing and cynical. This however certainly never compromised my enjoyment of it all. “Nocturnal Animals” is a beautiful film with much more meaning behind every detail, more so than I think it would be possible to catch it all in just one viewing – This is definitely a film that deserves to be watched more than once.
All up though, “Nocturnal animals” runs smoothly while hardly tripping up in any ways at all. There are only a few things that I’d consider flaws such as it could get a little confusing particularly in the beginning before you catch up with the pace of the film as well as the fact that some of the story lines are not quite as interesting as others, but in the end, the film is fantastically written, directed, acted and it greatly succeeds in telling its dark story with intensity and style. “Nocturnal Animals” is definitely film that you should look out for. It’s something a little bit different, a little smaller and it’s something that’s just generally very impressive. If you’re a film lover, I think you’ll find much to appreciate here.
8.75/10
