Nocturnal Animals

Name: Nocturnal Animals
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: November 18, 2016
Duration: 116 min
Rating: 67
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon

2016

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 530 Ratings

See All

7.7

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7.7	Your Score
7.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 530 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Nocturnal Animals

Now Playing: Nocturnal Animals

Movie Details & Credits

Focus Features | Release Date: November 18, 2016 | R

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon

Summary: An art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

Director: Tom Ford

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 116 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

David Rooney

Sep 2, 2016

Confidently dovetailing three strands that depict present and past reality, as well as a dark fictional detour that functions as a blunt real-life rebuke, the film once again demonstrates that Ford is both an intoxicating sensualist and an accomplished storyteller, with as fine an eye for character detail as he has for color and composition. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

Sep 2, 2016

Ford is a true moviemaker — a social observer who’s a junkie for sensation and narrative. He has structured Nocturnal Animals beautifully, so that the past feeds into the present, and fiction into reality. Read full review

Leah Greenblatt

Nov 17, 2016

The movie’s lofty narrative ambitions never quite catch up with its aesthetics, but it’s still a fantastic beast of a film, intoxicating and strange. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

Nov 17, 2016

There’s a mood, a feeling about life, that pervades Nocturnal Animals, one that’s expressed in visual terms. Read full review

Ty Burr

Nov 17, 2016

I don’t mean it as a cheap shot, but Nocturnal Animals is very like an exquisitely rendered window display. It’s something at which you pause and peer into and catch your breath — and then move on. Read full review

E. Oliver Whitney

Sep 10, 2016

Nocturnal Animals doesn’t have much substance, but its dazzling style is hard to completely resist. Read full review

Steve Persall

Nov 27, 2016

This is a soulless endeavor that would alarm if Ford devised it on his own. Instead, he shares blame with Austen Wright's novel Tony and Susan, adapted into parallel narratives; one empty, the other leaking blood. Read full review

SEE ALL 45 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

fra92

Nov 24, 2016

Powerful, mesmerising, incredible. Nocturnal Animals is a complex story that will stick with you for days. Tom Ford is a genius! I loved the cast: Amy Adams and Jake are stunning

9 of 13 users found this helpful94

ViniciusBrito

Jun 15, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie did one special thing, in a way that i have never seen before, not in the way that it is in this one. One of the main characters, Edward(Jake Gyllenhaal), likes to write and he wrote one novel to his ex-wife Susan(Amy Adams). The novel is a completely metaphor to what happend during his relationship with her, and this isn't never explicit during the movie, it never really tell us what it is and let us to interpret and find everything out by ourselves, wich is a thing to be glorified, there aren't to many movies these days that really let us investigate and discover the story that is being told in our way and in our time, making we imagine and use the creativity. It does start introducing Susan character, and showing that she works with some kind of art, and apparently very attached to money and some sense of power, current husband is Walker Morrow(Armie Hammer), wich is some big business and powefull guy that needs to travel from city to city and doesn't care or like much of Susan, actually it seems that he doesn't really give a damn to her, also cheats on her, wich is completely different to what Edward used to be, Edward was a very nice guy that cared a lot about people, about the family and always tried his best to make things right, always believing in people. Susan's mother is not of the best persons, wich says that sensitive are weak people and is wants some rich things, she wants lust at it's best and think that her daughter will be just like she, she wasn't wrong.
The acting is another great aspect here, Amy Adams could pass the idea of a hollow with her current husband, she passed the idea of unhapiness and lost, even repentance, her character pass a lot of time, thinking and reading. Jake Gyllenhaal did the best job in here, he was insanely perfect, the sadness, feeling of loss and despair, and even that revenge doesn't seem to pay off, he could pass emotions to us in a level that is not easy, the horror and how human and real he was, are one of the reasons that i couldn't even blink during some scenes, his acting skills were phenomenal. Michael Shannon is also great, he steals the show in some moments, every scene that he is in, interrogating someone or just explaining, he did a great job, was intense without even screaming. Aaron Johnson could make me get up of my seat of rage, his character was a truly psycho and he was perfect, got me really nervous in some moments. Isla Fisher is in the movie as the main character wife in the novel created by Edward, she looks a lot like Amy Adams, coincidence ? I think not. Laura Linney have a few minutes of screen, but she also did a great job.
The movie does have a message that money and lust isn't everything and you can't take this way in your life. Having everything will not let anyone happy. Friendship, love last longer than lust, it last forever. All of this, it does have a time for you to figure out, because depending in when you do, it will, possibly, be to late, and if it is to late, tehre is no redemption at all, you will just be waiting for that to comeback or arrive to you, but it will never come. Loneliness and distance is what will define things after that.
The cinematography from this movie is also great, it does help to tell the story and get some peculiar things in a fantastic way. In the moment that i realize that the novel written by Edward was a reflection from what happend to him and Susan, the next scene was Susan face being reflected at the window, that is just formidable. When Susan is reading the book the goes and comings when she is doing are much well done, the montage did a nice job. Crossphades and racós, it is a teaching of cinematography, everything helping the plot. Even the makeup tell a little of story.
This a heavy movie, with a lot of violence, that will shock you, the atmosphere that Tom Ford putted here was great. The movie have a lot of impact. The story is just great, the 3 timelines, the metaphor about who character is who and with you finding out stuff are all genius. The ending is insanely good, Susan waiting there with Edward having his revenge, just like the paint preview it. A niilist and a great movie, it is really that good.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

bhubgt1

Jun 26, 2020

Beautiful. Powerful.
But not for everyone as it leans much more towards being an artistic experience.