Some Shadows Can Overcome The Night

We are living in a very disposable world where everything can be thrown away: papers, clothes, wrappers, bags, tires, devices, cars, and even people. Nocturnal Animals is a story of why the latter should not be.

To make an argument for this movie being a must-watch, I could simply mention it is a story within a story. But not like Life of Pi where you might at some point forget about the outer story as the inner is so complete on its own. Not like One Thousand and One Nights where multiple inner stories are narrated back to back and afterwards left behind so that the outer story is the main focus. Rather, these are two stories that feed and fuel each other: a story of a guy whose family is stolen away from him, within a story of a woman who has robbed a guy of the potential of a family.

Or I could go another direction, saying, on my podcast, I have recently started to talk about serial killers and that has opened a whole new world for me, a rather sick one. But at the same time, I was lucky to find a new standard on ‘evil’ within a person which makes me able to better evaluate villains, or to be exact, the actors who portray villains. Aaron Taylor-Johnson hits it out of the park. He actually points it out in an interview that he studied Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, and yet he is more terrifying than either of them. Believe me, I have also studied them.

I could talk about how I do not like having background music in movies as, for me, they are the reminder of “you are watching a film.” I want to forget that part. I want to be made forget that part, which is why I already appreciate Asghar Farhadi's works even prior to the opening scene. His works do not have any music—just like the real life. However, as with all rules, there are exceptions; Abel Korzeniowski is a case in point. It is not just that the score is ear-catchy, but also the precision on when to use it, is almost surgical. Unfortunately, it is not something that I can elaborate on since it is a very personal matter (we hear different things when listening to the same). I just say—cinephile to cinephile—do not deprive yourself of a chance to immerse yourself so deeply in a movie that you forget something is playing.

I actually could not talk about cinematography. Not that it is bad, it is just you have to see for yourself when a detail-oriented Tom Ford and an experienced Seamus McGarvey team up, what the result is.

I could hope, first, that you (like me) are so into the beauty of one-liners that they might get you to watch a whole movie/show just for that; the way I started watching Peaky Blinders because of “Everyone's a whore, Grace. We just sell different parts of ourselves." Then, I could hope that you are familiar with Carl Jung's work, and say somewhere in the movie, someone says “Just wait. We all eventually turn into our mothers.” And probably hook you up on that.

I could also make a safe bet that you want to feel respected when watching a movie, and that is only, and only, achieved when the director respects the movie in the first place. Then I would go on and highlight how Tom Ford, being the successful fashion designer he is, understands ‘transitory’ and when he steps into the medium of film, something magically perennial, combines the two in a way that you grasp he has respected the movie, and by ‘movie’ I mean you. I would highlight he uses his own, personal stuff to literally put himself into the movie, such as the stud in Michael Sheen's coat—so small, so elegant. I would quote Amy Adams: “Nothing in my life is as beautiful as the world that Tom creates.” And just leave it there. I would definitely raise the fact that I used to think ‘books over films’ but on October 9th, 2022, after watching it for the sixth time and finally having read Tony & Susan, the book it is based on, I thought to myself the better case is ‘a great book, and a movie filtered through a great director.' Which has never happened for me apart from this certain must-watch.

I could go into excruciating detail on all those things but I am going to shift lanes and say this: if we boiled down the feeling of the need for revenge, inception-style, would we reach ‘hatred’ or, beneath it, the ‘love’ that once existed before it was shattered. Nocturnal Animals is a blend of an outer story, raising that question, and an inner story, presenting you with an answer.