Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Nocturnal Animals is a psychological thriller centred around Susan Morrow, played by Amy Adams.

Nocturnal Animals follows art director Susan Morrow as she reads a manuscript sent to her by her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal).

It says something about a movie when an entire audience is able to sit in silence for two hours. Nocturnal Animals is a film that manages to achieve this feat.

The story for this movie is written very well. The writing makes me feel as if I am reading a novel. At times I was thinking of the words that were accompanying each action that occurs on screen. Each one of the three stories manages to feel unique, yet as if it fit perfectly into the whole film. It is a credit to Tom Ford that he is able to achieve such a feat as a writer.

My only issue regarding the writing is that there is a lot of exposition. However, the exposition does aid in the feeling that the audience is reading a book and therefore suits the style of the movie.

Visually, the film is a very stylish affair. Tom Ford takes each story and gives it an individual presence. The common theme visually is shown through the large, almost empty, sets. This achieves two things, in my opinion, the first is to put the focus solely on the characters on screen. The second is to allow the audience's minds to create what is going on around the story, as in a novel.

The direction, also by Tom Ford, manages to show three completely unique views of the world, presenting each of them as different types of a nightmare. He deftly manages to visually weave the story for the audience to indulge upon.

The surprising part for me though is that he manages to dig into the depths of the story through his direction. He allows the audience to see into the mind of the characters without only resorting to exposition.

The cast in this movie is superb. Both leads show their emotions through the subtlety of their actions and the pitch perfect delivery of their lines. Personally, I think that this performance could get Amy Adams an Oscar nomination.

The supporting cast is also good. Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are more than capable in their roles as Bobby Andes and Ray Marcus respectively. Unfortunately, the remainder of the talented cast is used so fleetingly. Armie Hammer, in particular, could have been utilised more in the movie. I wouldn't have minded if an extra ten minutes was added to the movie to make more space for his character.

Nocturnal Animals is a visually stylish movie that has a surprising amount of depth to it. The interweaving narratives show respect to the audience's ability to follow the narrative without having to slow down the steady pace of the film. The film's ability to keep an entire audience enthralled for two hours speaks both to the quality of the direction as well as the hunger for these types of films.

Number of times I looked at my watch: Zero

Recommendation: Watch this movie.

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Arrival (2016)

Arrival is a Science Fiction film about first contact with an alien species.

Arrival tells the tale of Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguistic professor who is called upon to help the US military when an unidentified flying object lands in Montana.

Arrival successfully manages to stray away from the tried and true formula of first contact movies by telling a personal tale that raises this movie to become one of the best movies of the year.

Denis Villeneuve successfully takes what could have been a run of the mill and uninteresting sci-fi movie and turns it into deeply personal tale. His direction causes the film to ebb and flow alongside the mental state of the films protagonist, therefore taking the audience on a psychological journey as opposed to a physical one.

Story wise, this is a subtle movie with a well crafted narrative. Eric Heisserer has done a wonderful job of adapting Ted Chiang's novel "Story of Your Life" to a screenplay format. Heisserer has managed to craft a story that allows the viewer to change their perspective while they watch the movie, which is a refreshing experience in the cinema.

The use of sound in this movie expands upon the personalisation of the music. This is a boon to sound designers Michelle Child, Olivier Calvert and the rest of the sound department. Music and sound effects are a fantastic tool that helps the audience enter the mind of our protagonist.

The sounds that are created for the alien language, as well as the written alien language, help create a believable alien presence. What helps even more is the visual presence for the alien creatures. The design is incredible, although reminiscent of the alien design in Torchwood: Children of Earth.

The mythology for the creatures is developed enough for the audience to believe that they could exist somewhere in the universe, but there is not enough explained for the audience to know everything about the creatures. This therefore allows the creatures to maintain their ethereal presence.

Of course, none of this could be possible without Amy Adams stunning performance as the films protagonist. Her grounded portrayal of Dr. Banks manages to make this film appear as it if could possibly be the world outside our window.

Amy Adams is supported by a wonderful supporting cast, including Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly and Forest Whittaker as Colonel Weber. Both actors use their time on screen to not only boost the performance of Amy Adams, but to demonstrate their own acting chops.

The casts portrayals of their characters managed to hit the correct notes, with all character relationships feeling natural as opposed to forced. This allowed the world to feel lived in and as if the audience was watching the world that we were shown change, as well as the characters positions in this world.

This movie has managed to make the audience think by telling a personal story. It forces to audience to go beyond their usual limit with sci-fi and think about the story that is being told. Arrival is a film that audiences need to see in order to understand how genre defying films can be made.

Number of times I looked at my watch: Once

Recommendation: See this film.

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Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange is a fantastical Marvel movie focusing on the origin story for Doctor Stephen Strange.

Doctor Strange tells the story of Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), a prominent surgeon, who is searching to restore his formerly glorious livelihood after it was taken from him.

Doctor Strange attempts to stray away from the Marvel factory formula, but ultimately it's trapped by what has come before in the franchise, therefore preventing the film from reaching the epic heights that were possible.

The characters in this movie are one note characters, bar the titular Doctor Strange. This is not helped by the fact that Tilda Swinton's Ancient One appears to have been a relatively phoned in performance. Chiwetel Edjiofor and Benedict Wong serve their purposes as Karl Mordo and Wong respectively (although I feel that both actors are greater than the roles they were given).

Unfortunately, yet again, the villain was forgettable. Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) is a character that could have been far more imposing than he ended up being. The unfortunate truth is that this film did not require an actor like Mads Mikkelsen to portray the villain, as the villain wasn't essential to the story that the film was trying to tell.

The highlights of the movie were the visual effects. They allowed the viewer to escape into the fantastical universe that director Scott Derrickson was trying to create. Unfortunately, at times the movie is taken over by a deluge of CGI, in order to show off the vastness of the budget.

This, and the cinematography are where the film strains to escape the confines of its franchise. Visually, the world that is created is almost inception like. As eye popping sequences occur and the world the characters changes, one can't help but be in awe of the details thrown into the visual aspect of this movie. However, there are still elements where CGI human models look unrealistic which takes you out of the spectacular visual world that's created.

The story is pretty straight forward, with many elements that are predictable to anyone who has seen a Marvel origin story before. While this serves as an easy entry for the character, the feeling that so much more could be done lingers.

What's annoys me is that the story is told through dialogue as opposed to visually. Visual moments occur to further story, but almost immediately a character explains the events that the audience has just seen, slowing the pace to a crawl. I don't mind this happening every so often, but it feels as if the entire movie is littered with this kind of storytelling.

There is a far better movie hidden in the depths of this very shallow story. One about self reflection and learning to change how you view the world. Unfortunately the story refuses to delve deeper into this thread and chooses to opt for the lighter and breezier tone that Marvel is known for. Personally, I feel that this is a missed opportunity for the brand to evolve beyond what it is.

Number of times I looked at my watch: Four

Recommendation: Watch it in Netflix, among a marathon of movies, when you don't want to concentrate.

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