Review of Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Peter7000 — 09 Feb 2017

When watching a movie, I tend to ask a few simple questions if the story and aesthetics don't appeal to me personally. Those questions are what is the point of the film? What does the film add to life? What does it give the audience?

For this movie, which I found neither thrilling, nor particularly dramatic, the answers are as follows. The point of this film seems to be the exploration of shallow / base and dark human emotions. Nice. This film adds nothing to life in my opinion. The technical aspects are not new, nor are they inspiring as they do not serve a useful point. While it can be argued that darkness has a use, it, like lightness or positivity needs something to contrast and / or interact with. A film without humour is a dead object, just as is a film without darkness. This leads to what it gives the audience - well, it does provide insight into the darker parts of human psychology and adds to nihilist philosophy. It should probably be classified as a horror film. I've heard others compare it to some of Lynch's work, but it doesn't have the spunk, the verve, nor the vision of Lost Highway or Mullholland Drive. It is not phantasmagoric, nor striking in the digesis.

I am open to hear what makes this film good. It really isn't in my opinion, but then again ones mood is important when watching films, and mine isn't good today. Heh, this film really didn't help.