NOCTURNAL ANIMALS – We Are Movie Geeks

LA LA LAND and ARRIVAL Lead the 2016 St. Louis Film Critics Association Nominations

“La La Land,” an original musical about pursuing one’s dreams, garnered 13 nominations, while the science-fiction close encounter “Arrival” earned eight nominations from the St. Louis Film Critics Association Sunday.

The organization will announce their annual awards on Sunday, Dec. 18. Awards are given out in 23 categories.

Best Film nominees also included two haunting, powerful dramas, “Manchester by the Sea” and “Moonlight,” with six nominations apiece. The neo-western thriller “Hell or High Water” earned four, as did the First Lady biopic “Jackie” and the Coen Brothers comedy “Hail, Caesar!.”

Other multiple nominees included the action-comedy “Deadpool,” the sci-fi adventure “Doctor Strange,” the landmark Supreme Court case on interracial marriage “Loving,” the animated musical “Moana,” and the thriller “Nocturnal Animals,” all with three.

SLFCA members work for recognized outlets in print, broadcast and online publications.

For more information about the awards or our group, visit www.stlfilmcritics.org or contact board secretary Lynn Venhaus, 618-917-8175.

Here is a complete list of nominations:

BEST FILM

Arrival
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

BEST DIRECTOR

Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”
David Mackenzie, “Hell or High Water”
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”

BEST ACTOR

Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Joel Edgerton, “Loving”
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Tom Hanks, “Sully”

BEST ACTRESS

Amy Adams, “Arrival”
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Greta Gerwig, “20^th Century Women”
Lily Gladstone, “Certain Women”
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Taylor Sheridan, “Hell or High Water”
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Jeff Nichols, “Loving”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Eric Heisserer, “Arrival”
August Wilson, “Fences”
Luke Davies, “Lion”
Whit Stillman, “Love and Friendship”
Tom Ford, “Nocturnal Animals”

BEST EDITING
Hacksaw Ridge
Jackie
La La Land
Moonlight
Nocturnal Animals

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Bradford Young, “Arrival”
Vittorio Storaro, “Café Society”
Roger Deakins, “Hail, Caesar!”
Linus Sandgren, “La La Land”
James Laxton, “Moonlight”

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
The Handmaiden
Jackie
La La Land
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Arrival
Doctor Strange
The Jungle Book
La La Land
A Monster Calls
BEST MUSIC SCORE

Johann Johannsson, “Arrival”
Mica Levi, “Jackie”
Justin Herwitz, “La La Land”
Nicholas Brittle, “Moonlight”
Cliff Martinez, “The Neon Demon”

BEST SOUNDTRACK
Everybody Wants Some!!
La La Land
Moana
Sing Street
Trolls

BEST SONG

“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” ” “La La Land”
“City of Stars,” “La La Land”
“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana”
“You’re Welcome,” “Moana
“Drive It Like You Stole It,” “Sing Street”

BEST ACTION FILM

Captain America: Civil War
Deadpool
Doctor Strange
Hacksaw Ridge
Jason Bourne

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

April and the Extraordinary World
Finding Dory
Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
Zootopia

BEST COMEDY

Deadpool
Don’t Think Twice
Florence Foster Jenkins
Hail, Caesar!
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

De Palma
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
I Am Not Your Negro
Weiner

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Elle
The Handmaiden
A Man Called Ove
Our Little Sister
Toni Erdmann

BEST HORROR/SCI-FI
10 Cloverfield Lane
Arrival
Doctor Strange
Don’t Breathe
The Witch
BEST SCENE

Berlin Airport fight, “Captain America: Civil War”
Opening credits, “Deadpool”
“Would that it were so simple” with Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich, “Hail, Caesar!”
Opening traffic jam number, “La La Land”
Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams encounter on street, “Manchester by the Sea”

WORST
The Angry Birds Movie
Masterminds
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
Warcraft
Zoolander 2

This Week’s WAMG Podcast – BAD SANTA 2, MOANA, ALLIED and More!

This week’s episode of our podcast WE ARE MOVIE GEEKS The Show is up! Hear WAMG’s Cate Marquis, Jim Batts and Tom Stockman talk movies. We’ll discuss the weekend box office and review RULES DON’T APPLY, THE EAGLE HUNTRESS, BAD SANTA 2, MOANA, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, ALLIED, and NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. We’ll also tale a look at upcoming movie events in St. Louis, pay our respects to the late Florence Henderson, and talk about how the Oscar race is shaping up.

Here’s this week’s show. Have a listen:

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS – Review

Writer-director Tom Ford’s NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is a movie that clearly fancies itself hip and ingenious, but ends up as flabby as the middle-aged obese women that dance naked in slow motion during the opening credits.

With NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, Ford presents a dual storyline that alternates between a Texas-set Bronson-esque revenge tale and an arty Lynch/Refn-inspired look at the ugliness of modern life. Amy Adams stars as Susan, a wealthy but sad Los Angeles art gallery owner (those naked chubbettes are an exhibit) married to Hutton (Armie Hammer), an unfaithful stockbroker with money problems. One day a manuscript is delivered to Susan, a novel titled Nocturnal Animals, dedicated to her and written by her former husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) who she has not spoken to in 19 years. She lays down to read it and suddenly we are in the book, where math professor Tony (Gyllenhaal again), is driving through Texas with his wife (Isla Fisher – resembling Adams) and their bratty teen daughter (Ellie Bamber). They’re forced off the road and terrorized by a trio of unwashed hooligans led by Ray (Aaron Taylor Johnson). The encounter ends in tragedy and the shattered Tony then teams up with laconic, cancer-stricken detective Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) and the pair spend months trying to solve the crime.

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS bounces awkwardly between this story-within-the-movie and the more stylishly-filmed story of Susan, juxtaposing her pity party with Tony’s shocking ordeal. At first, there’s mystery. Is some of Ed’s novel is based on truth? A phone call from Susan to their daughter reveals little, but why does his story freak her out so much? There are long flashbacks to points in Susan and Edward’s relationship, but these shed little light on the puzzle.

There are some good moments in NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. A scene when Susan’s younger colleague (Jena Malone) shows off her sleeping baby on her phone app is well-written and ends with a nice shock, but too many sequences, including that tense highway encounter and a flashback of Susan and Edward’s first dinner date go on far too long. Amy Adams is in low-key misery mode in the contemporary scenes while perky in the flashbacks, but Susan is not a very compelling character nor much of a challenge for the actress. Gyllenhaal is the one forced to display big emotions, fear and anger and regret, but he’s only partially successful. It’s the supporting cast that shines. Michael Shannon’s chain-smoking surface swagger peels back to reveal a man of depth and character. Armie Hammer’s blandness works in his favor for a change while an unrecognizable Aaron Taylor Johnson hits all the right hateful notes. A scene stealer is Laura Linney as Susan’s narrow-minded mother who we’re told is a conservative Republican, which I guess explains the enormous Barbara Bush-style pearl necklace she sports.

Ford heightens the melodrama with a lush and seductive score by Abel Korzeniowski which nicely mixes with Seamus McGarvey’s cinematography, iridescent in the L.A. scenes while earthier during Tony’s Texas nightmare. Ford’s caricature of the Lone Star State is about what you’d expect from a former Gucci fashion designer; a place of dark and dangerous highways where backwoods yokels have toilets installed on their front porches, and where the brutal rape and murder of two upper class white women is assigned to a single lowdown detective. I was never bored with NOCTURNAL ANIMALS but its competing narratives don’t mesh well and the film ultimately doesn’t add up to much.

2 1/2 Stars

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS opens Wednesday November 23rd in St. Louis exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater

Watch Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal And Michael Shannon In New Trailer For NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

A brand new trailer has arrived for Focus Features’ NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.

Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, director Tom Ford’s haunting romantic thriller opens in select theaters on November 18th and expands to theaters nationwide December 9th.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival. From writer/director Tom Ford comes a haunting romantic thriller of shocking intimacy and gripping tension that explores the thin lines between love and cruelty, and revenge and redemption. Academy Award nominees Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star as a divorced couple discovering dark truths about each other and themselves in NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.

Visit the official site: www.focusfeatures.com/nocturnalanimals

Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal And Michael Shannon Star In Trailer For NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Celebrate writer/director Tom Ford’s return to the big screen with the new teaser trailer for his haunting romantic thriller NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, which screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival opens in select theaters on November 18th and expands to theaters nationwide December 9th.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writes in his review that the movie, “is a suspenseful and intoxicating movie — a thriller that isn’t scared to go hog-wild with violence, to dig into primal fear and rage, even as it’s constructed around a melancholy love story that circles back on itself in tricky and surprising ways. With Amy Adams as a posh, married, but deeply lonely Los Angeles art-gallery owner, and Jake Gyllenhaal as the novelist from her past who finds himself trapped in a nightmare, the movie has two splendid actors working at the top of their game, and more than enough refined dramatic excitement to draw awards-season audiences hungry for a movie that’s intelligent and sensual at the same time.”

From writer/director Tom Ford comes a haunting romantic thriller of shocking intimacy and gripping tension that explores the thin lines between love and cruelty, and revenge and redemption. Academy Award nominees Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star as a divorced couple discovering dark truths about each other and themselves in NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. The film also stars Isla Fisher, Karl Glusman, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, and Michael Sheen.

www.focusfeatures.com/nocturnalanimals

Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal in New Character Posters from NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

See Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in new character posters from Focus Features’ haunting romantic thriller NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. From writer/director Tom Ford (A Single Man), the official 2016 Toronto International Film Festival selection makes its North American premiere there on Sunday, September 11.

Cast: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Karl Glusman, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen

Directed By: Tom Ford (“A Single Man”)

Written By: Tom Ford, based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright

Distributor: Focus Features

MPAA Rating: R

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