Review of Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Lyn — 15 Apr 2017

Many scenes in this stylish film leave you asking "why?" -- but not necessarily in a good way. Why does it end as it does? Why did Amy Adams' ex-husband send her a manuscript of his disturbing novel? Why was Tom Ford compelled to open with an awful, extended scene of morbidly obese women dancing nude? For a while, the story-within-a-story approach is interesting: It's also fiction-within-nonfiction, and you wonder how the ex-husband's novel links to the couple's past (and future?) relationship.

But that's just one way the storytelling breaks down: There seems to have been much less attention paid to vital plot connections than to Amy Adams' hair and makeup. Keeping this in the "yellow" section just for Michael Shannon's performance, intensely terrific as always.