Nocturnal Animals (2016)

An art gallery executive (Amy Adams) receives an unpublished novel by her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal). As she reads the novel, the film moves back and forth between the book's story and her own life. Directed by Tom Ford who also wrote the screenplay which is adapted from Austin Wright's novel TONY AND SUSAN. I hated Ford's last film A SINGLE MAN, so much so that I walked out of it. This film is simply brilliant! The contrast of the chic but empty Manhattan lifestyle she leads with the horror of the novel's violent South Texas setting isn't arbitrary. As the two stories (the real and fiction) criss cross, it becomes apparent that there's a connection. It's movies like this that keep me excited about contemporary American cinema. Still, even I wasn't prepared for the ending which I should have seen coming. Bravo, Mr. Ford! As he proved with NIGHTCRAWLER, Gyllenhaal is an actor without vanity who takes risks and his performance here is excellent and if Michael Shannon doesn't get an Oscar nomination, there's no justice. The audience I saw it with was captivated and with it all the way. An incredible underscore by Abel Korseniowski. With Aaron Taylor Johnson, Armie Hammer, Michael Sheen, Isla Fisher, Jena Malone, Andrea Riseborough and Laura Linney, who only has one scene but knocks it out of the ball park.