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- 2018
- R
- 2 h 1 m
- 2018
- R
- 2 h 1 m
Summary Destroyer follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to final...
Directed By: Karyn Kusama
Written By: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
- 2018
- R
- 2 h 1 m
- 2018
- R
- 2 h 1 m
Destroyer
62
5.7
Where to Watch
Summary Destroyer follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to final...
Directed By: Karyn Kusama
Written By: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 44 Critic Reviews
62
55% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
41% Mixed
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 44 Critic Reviews
62
55% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
41% Mixed
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
5% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
It’s a strong film, directed with confidence and a trust that the audience will be able to keep up, no matter how convoluted the narrative becomes.
Kidman has always been a chameleon, but in this case, she doesn’t merely change her color (or don a fake nose, à la “The Hours”); she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character’s tough hide.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 83 User Ratings
5.7
41% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
42% Mixed
35 Ratings
35 Ratings
17% Negative
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 83 User Ratings
5.7
41% Positive
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
42% Mixed
35 Ratings
35 Ratings
17% Negative
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
This is a really quite edgy, gritty and raw type thriller film, with Nicole Kidman giving a strong performance in the main lead, as a very determined officer, willing to do whatever it takes to ger her target. It has the feel of a somewhat underground film, not so much that its a b-movie in tone but more in terms of the plot details, the dark tone of it I suppose. Its not entirely a film with lots of glitz and glamour, of course. I felt Kidman was very convincing in this film and it felt quite engrosing, although the somewhat shaky camerawork at times did put me off a little. Its relatively absorbing and intriguing, plot wise, with the viewer slowly learning more about Erin Bells background as the film continues.
The incidental music played, mostly edgy stringed instrument type music (like that used in Hitchcock films), is relatively good at adding to the general sense of uncertainty and the doubt of who will be the first to blink, if you know what I mean, although it is perhaps a little loud now and again. In that sense, its quite intriguing, even 'mean and moody'. I suppose Kidmans character is someone that many parents and police officers may/can relate to, to one extent or another. Its a relatively fast paced (if in short bursts) and frantic watch, raw and well characterised film which I'd recommend.
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Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) is nearly unrecognizable as Petra, Silas’ longtime girlfriend caught in Bell’s roundup, and Bradley Whitford shows up in the latest of his silver-haired villain roles as a sketchy lawyer.
Kidman’s performance as this broken, obsessed woman is powerful. Breathless, rasping through her teeth, she conveys both vulnerability and intractability. She seems like she could drop dead at any second, and yet, we also sense that we’re watching someone who has already had to endure the worst life has to give her.
As ambitious and sometimes unsettling as it is, the film, after crossing back and forth over the line many times, ultimately feels affected in its aspirations toward making some profound statement about self-abasement and sacrifice, making one feel like rejecting the whole thing despite some striking individual moments.
For Kidman, Destroyer is simply the latest in a long career of fascinating, often nervily risk-taking career choices, in which she submerges her lithe grace and porcelain beauty to inhabit the toughest characters and stories.
The filmmakers treat their material sternly and humorlessly, as if there's some great moral lesson to be imparted from Erin's inexhaustible blotto jerkiness.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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The performance given by Nicole Kidman and other actors are great but the movie doesn't have much story to tell specially for a 2 hours long crime/drama movie and it could be shorter. there are some scenes that seems a little not necessary for the plot. The story and the way it has been told is so realistic which is the best feature of the movie. the aspect of time and the reason that viewer is clueless of the past is the only magnet for them to stay and figure out the rest of the movie which is i personally think is so slow.
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Jumping around from past to present was a bit confusing as I had no idea who any of the characters were as their older selves. It was still a compelling movie as Nicole plays a seemingly alcoholic, take no prisoners, police detective trying to look out for her kid that is a trouble magnet. I'm shocked she didn't just kill everyone. A lot of things seem more like happenstance rather than detective work.
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Un film à la Heat par son ambiance désabusée et une Nicole Kidman très impressionnante en flic non moins désabusée dont la culpabilité et les regrets se lisent sur son visage... car en tant qu'agente infiltrée (oui, oui, une "agente" pour l'inclusivité et la parité obligatoires...) dans un gang de braqueurs très dangereux, elle a sensiblement merdé...
C'est ce que l'on devine ou ce que l'on parvient à comprendre -tout de même- au fil d'un récit très laborieux, car les évènements se sont déroulés 17 ans auparavant... Le film abuse donc de nombreux retours en arrière et fait régulièrement la navette entre le passé et le présent de façon si fugace et maladroite qu'on y entrave pas grand-chose. Sauf à la fin... tout de même !
Le comble est que le film s'étire en longueurs interminables sans faire progresser le schmilblick significativement ; il se laisse aller par contre au psychodrame inutile entre notre flic (hum... flickette pour le féminin peut-être ?) et sa fille de 16 ans qui fait n'imp' (normal, c'est une ado...).
Par la grâce du maquillage (ou d'effets spéciaux ?) on alterne ici la Kidman jeune et la Kidman... moins jeune un peu poivrote sur les bords qui campe ce personnage au bout du rouleau mais d'une volonté toujours implacable. Nicole reste en tout cas stupéfiante de brio et demeure sans conteste l'intérêt principal de ce film qui ressemblerait presque à Heat s'il n'était pas aussi mal foutu et bordélique.
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Unless you enjoy being spat at, verbally abused and treated like a second rate viewer this could be a good movie to stay away from. TV director Karyn Kusama, her writer hubby Phil Hay, along with his co-writer Matt Manfredi look like being names to consider adding to a must avoid list. With a sludge fund of impossible to like characters - who continue to become more detestable as the minutes tick by (and there is 2 long Hrs worth that goes very slowly). You will be forgiven if you walk (no, run) out on this grot-fest of undesirable situations and characters (my audience was gone within the first 25mins). I, being a glutton for punishment had to stay to see just how much worse it could get --struggled to the bitter end-- did it get better? Sadly not. It’s another of those simple stories that have been given an unnecessary flash-back flash-forward edit job - in an attempt to make you think it's deep and meaningful, it isn’t. It seems Nichole Kidman may be heading down the road to self ruin by taking any script that’s thrown at her - leaving any followers left to think twice, before any longer bothering to follow her career. It’s as if she mistakenly feels, as these cheap writers do, that you have to keep going lower down the moral scale to be noticed. Well, from the look of the lowering audience attendances this just ain’t necessarily so! The artsy pretensions did not help whatsoever, just made it look all the more contrived. Waste of an otherwise interesting music score and just about everything else. For the easily pleased.
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Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 4 Nominations
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
• 3 Nominations
