Nocturnal Animals

— “Nocturnal Animals” is a more ambitious story than Tom Ford’s earlier, wonderful film “A Single Man”, but you can recognize Ford’s hand from the beautiful photography and design. In a way, it’s three stories that seem to overlap in time and fact so it’s purposely a little hard to keep track of whether you’re seeing the current day Susan (Amy Adams) with husband Hutton (Armie Hammer) living the wealthy but unsatisfied life in L.A.; fictionalized Laura (Amy Adams) and Laura’s husband Tony (Jake Gyllanhaal) as depicted in the novel recently written by Susan’s first husband, Edward (Jake Gyllanhaal) and dedicated to her; or Edward and Susan’s real, past life. It has the feeling that you’re watching the director watch the action so you feel a little removed from the actors but I like that. It’s also helpful since parts of the film are pretty dark and each story’s characters are littered with psychological issues and some disturbing images, including the first, odd scene with a group of obese and aging naked women dancing on platforms as part of an art opening. Everything about it is sharp and exacting which sometimes leads to the technique taking center stage, but mostly it’s a thriller of sorts. It’s still creeping into my thoughts a day later and I know I’ve seen a good but unsettling story of either revenge or redemption, and maybe both.

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[2016. 116 minutes. Directed by Tom Ford. Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Tyalor-Johnson, and Armie Hammer.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/nocturnal-animals-2016

Top 20 of 2016

— Here are the 20 films I've liked from 2016.

• The Arrival
• A Bigger Splash
• Deadpool
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hail, Caesar!
• Hell or High Water
• Hidden Figures
• Jackie
• La La Land
• Lion
• The Lobster
• Loving
• A Man Called Ove
• Manchester by the Sea
• The Meddler
• Miss Sloane
• Moonlight
• Nocturnal Animals
• Swiss Army Man

Eleven other films almost made the list: "Deepwater Horizon", "Dr. Strange", "Genius", "Hello, My Name Is Doris", "Fences", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", "The Infiltrator", "Maggie’s Plan", "Sing Street", "Sully”, and "20th Century Women”,

Documentaries aren't included in my list, but these were my favorites during the year: "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week", "City of Gold", "Fire at Sea", "Harry & Snowman", "Kate Plays Christine", "Life, Animated", "Tickled", "The Music of Strangers", "Sherpa", and "Weiner".

Miss Sloane

— Jessica Chastain sure knows how to put the “power” in “powerful lobbyist” and without her and a very well written script, “Miss Sloane” wouldn’t be nearly as fascinating. She’s ruthless and stops at nothing to succeed at what’s she’s been hired to do. She leads lambs to slaughter, sacrifices her own, and knows what her opponents' next five moves will be. This is a formidable adversary but somehow she manages to get our sympathy in spite of her flexible ethics, raising issues about ends justifying means, the source of political stagnation, greed, loyalty, blame, and redemption. Aside from an ending that I found a little unsatisfactory, I liked the film a lot. Knowing my friends, I think they’ll either love or hate this one—Miss Sloane certainly isn’t a poster child for women in the workplace. (Oh, and having seen “Nocturnal Animals” the day before, it appears that bright red lipstick and extremely high heels may be indicators about a woman’s heartlessness.)

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[2016. 132 min. Directed by John Madden. Starring Jessican Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Mark Strong.]
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/miss-sloanes-washington-is-rotten-to-the-core/510131/