Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Everyone has a favourite Director. Some may say Speilberg. Some may say Nolan. Some may say Fincher. But for me, my favourite Director has to be Tom Ford. It's not because he's a master at filmmaking or that he has had an industrious directorial career. Instead, it's because he has NOT made many films and is still relatively new to filmmaking that I follow him. He is a director I can get behind. A director I can root for, and can follow from his first films and follow his progress. It also doesn't hurt that he'd directed one of my most favourite films of All Time - A Single Man.
After an acclaimed first feature 'A Single Man', Nocturnal Animals is Tom Ford's second Directorial Feature. It features an eclectic cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher (yes you read that right, this film features 2 strikingly similar actresses, and yes Ford put this peculiar feature to good use here). If you've seen 'A Single Man' you would instantly be be able to tell that 'Nocturnal Animals' is Tom Ford's movie, by its styling, its music, how the film is shot, its pace, it is again a carefully crafted movie.
But unlike his first feature, this film is a psychological thriller, done with Ford's personal touch. He writes his own screenplay based off of an original material, because of that the film felt very 'personal'. The film itself is set in Texas, which is where Ford was born. While thriller directors often intentionally leave the audience in the dark to create that 'suspense', I love how Ford doesn't try to do too much of it here. Instead Ford's story focusses more on the emotional aspects of his characters, making his characters felt real, genuine, believable, and ultimately we very quickly become involved in the story and not merely as a spectator, but as a carer for the characters.
Nocturnal Animals felt very personal to me due to its subject matters, I can relate to the sensitivity of its main protagonist, how one chooses to live and follow certain paths in life, how some decisions are made in haste but has enormous impact to another person for years and years, and also our desire to create 'art' and why sometimes we want to create and contrasting that with why sometimes we 'need' to create art ....
It is not a 'perfect' film. There are flaws, there always are. But like following the Jazz, our favourite basketball team - they don't always win - but it's still your team and you root for them no matter what. The Jazz plays with passion and plays the right way with the right attitude - no 'cheap shots'. We may not have the kind of money GSW or NY have to play with, but we love them all the same.
I will always root for Ford because his heart is in the right place. He doesn't create 'plastic characters' *cough* Nicholas Winding Refn *cough* Neon Demon *cough*. He creates films that make me want to reflect on my own life and think a bit more deeply about it through his lens. He has a meaningful message worth talking about and worth sharing amongst friends, and he portrays it in a way that is memorable to us. And to me that's all you could ever hoped for from a film.
It easily gets a 4.5/5 for me.
Go see it.
