Susan Morrow receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband – a man she left 20 years earlier – asking for her opinion of his writing. As she reads, she is drawn into the fictional life of Tony Hastings, a mathematics professor whose family vacation turns violent.

Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• Susan Morrow: Amy Adams
• Edward Sheffield / Tony Hastings: Jake Gyllenhaal
• Bobby Andes: Michael Shannon
• Ray Marcus: Aaron Taylor-Johnson
• Laura Hastings: Isla Fisher
• India Hastings: Ellie Bamber
• Hutton Morrow: Armie Hammer
• Lou Bates: Karl Glusman
• Steve ‘Turk’ Adams: Robert Aramayo
• Anne Sutton: Laura Linney
• Alessia Holt: Andrea Riseborough
• Carlos Holt: Michael Sheen
• Samantha Morrow: Bobbi Salvör Menuez
• Chloe: Imogen Waterhouse
• Driver: Franco Vega
• Alex: Zawe Ashton
• TV Woman Voice #1: Evie Pree
• TV Woman Voice #2: Beth Ditto
• Lt. Graves: Graham Beckel
• Christopher: Neil Jackson
• Sage Ross: Jena Malone
• Office Executive: Lee Benton
• Samantha Van Helsing: Kristin Bauer van Straten
• Hostess: Sydney Schafer
• Elevator Operator: Evan Bittencourt
• Nurse: Janet Song
• Video Woman #1: Michele Dunn
• Video Woman #2: Lori Jean Wilson
• Video Woman #3: Peggy Fields Richardson
• Video Woman #4: Piper Major
• Oscar – Diner Guest (uncredited): Moose Ali Khan
• Restaurant Patron (uncredited): Brianna Barnes
• Art Gallery Guest (uncredited): Amanda Fields
• Businessman (uncredited): Joshua D. Eads
• UPS Man (uncredited): Jonathan Fredrick
• Restaurant Patron (uncredited): Alizee Gaillard
• Party Attendee (uncredited): Nick Hounslow
• Kerstin – Restaurant Guest (uncredited): Kerstin Lechner
• Dinner Party Valet (uncredited): Carson Nicely
• Art Gallery Waiter (uncredited): Christopher Pinkalla
• Art Gallery Guest (uncredited): Tonia Marie Rosée
• Trucker (uncredited): Errol Sack
• Art Gallery Guest (uncredited): Brian Stivale
• Young Girl (uncredited): Chelsea Taylor
• Old Man (uncredited): Jack Wallace
• Red Solo Cup Girl (uncredited): Jackie Zane
• Blonde Woman (uncredited): Maria Zyrianova

Film Crew:

• Casting: Francine Maisler
• Director of Photography: Seamus McGarvey
• Producer: Robert Salerno
• Stunt Coordinator: Jack Gill
• Set Decoration: Meg Everist
• Costume Supervisor: Donna O’Neal
• Supervising Sound Editor: Lon Bender
• Production Design: Shane Valentino
• Costume Design: Arianne Phillips
• Assistant Art Director: Andrew Hull
• Editor: Joan Sobel
• Stunts: Tarah Paige
• Music Editor: Stuart Morton
• Producer: Tom Ford
• Still Photographer: Dale Robinette
• Makeup Effects Designer: Jason Collins
• Original Music Composer: Abel Korzeniowski
• Makeup Artist: Keith Sayer
• Stand In: Ronnie Rodriguez
• Set Decoration Buyer: Justin Allen
• Stunts: Mandy Kowalski
• Still Photographer: Merrick Morton
• Boom Operator: Chris Quilty
• Location Scout: Scott Trimble
• Boom Operator: Tim Song Jones
• Makeup Department Head: Donald Mowat
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Paul Cotterell
• Foley Artist: Tara Blume
• First Assistant Director: Jason Blumenfeld
• Foley Artist: Rick Owens
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Vincent Cosson
• Sound Designer: Kris Fenske
• Special Effects Supervisor: Eric Frazier
• Dialect Coach: Michael Buster
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Mike Prestwood Smith
• Camera Operator: David Emmerichs
• Helicopter Camera: Hans Bjerno
• Co-Producer: Diane L. Sabatini
• Hair Department Head: Yolanda Toussieng
• Construction Coordinator: Mike Villarino
• Lighting Technician: Chris Napolitano
• Hair Department Head: Jules Holdren
• Leadman: R. Scott Doran
• Unit Publicist: Spooky Stevens
• Transportation Coordinator: Michael Menapace
• Script Supervisor: Scott Peterson
• Makeup Artist: Elaine L. Offers
• Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Gilbert Lake
• Sound Effects Editor: Matthew Wilson
• Key Makeup Artist: Malanie J. Romero
• Set Costumer: Kelly Porter
• Novel: Austin Wright
• ADR Mixer: Chris Navarro
• Casting Associate: Sande Alessi
• Standby Painter: Chris Samp
• ADR Mixer: Michael Miller
• First Assistant Camera: Harry Zimmerman
• Dialogue Editor: Shane Hayes
• Hairstylist: Robert Wilson
• Stunts: Marc Scizak
• Sound Effects Editor: Ando Johnson
• Art Direction: Christopher Brown
• Production Sound Mixer: Lori Dovi
• Digital Intermediate Colorist: Paul Ensby
• Art Department Coordinator: Alanna Levy
• Costumer: Chris Allegro
• Camera Technician: Dustin Evans
• Loader: Renee Treyball
• Driver: Gary Thomas Williams
• Digital Intermediate Colorist: Siggy Ferstl
• Greensman: Richard W. Jones
• Set Dresser: Josh Kanan
• Set Designer: Bryan Lane
• Lead Painter: Kevin Mahoney
• Prop Maker: Melissa McSorley
• Foley Editor: Robert D. Caballero
• Sound Mixer: Scott Harber
• Sound Engineer: Thomas Pinney
• Foley Mixer: Ryan Wassil
• Special Effects Coordinator: Randy Fitzgerald
• Visual Effects Editor: Stephen Boucher
• Digital Compositors: Klaudija Cermak
• Digital Compositors: Ivan Grozev
• Visual Effects Producer: Darina Johns Ivanova
• Digital Compositors: Ivailo Marinov
• Digital Compositors: Eloi G. Martorell
• Visual Effects Supervisor: Casey Schatz
• Stunts: Geoff Pilkington
• Grip: Ryan Busscher
• Rigging Gaffer: Robert B. Dechellis
• Rigging Grip: Dhamarata Dhiensuwana
• Camera Technician: Kelly Diehl
• Grip: Krystina Figg
• Video Assist Operator: Jesse Olivares
• Lighting Technician: Brennan Price
• Electrician: Theodore Rysz III
• Lighting Technician: Michael J. Schwartz
• Casting Associate: Mike Passine
• First Assistant Editor: Ofe Yi
• Location Manager: Stephenson Crossley
• Score Engineer: Geoff Foster
• Driver: Chuck Martinez
• Driver: Mark Webb
• Stand In: Melissa Bender
• Production Accountant: Marjorie Chodorov
• Set Production Assistant: Kit Conners
• Stand In: Jared Gibson
• Set Production Assistant: Ben Hall
• Title Graphics: Richard Morrison
• Production Office Assistant: Olivia Roush
• Production Coordinator: Nick Rufca
• Production Office Assistant: Kirsten Tobey
• Title Graphics: Dean Wares
• Set Production Assistant: Sean Yopchick
• Second Assistant Director: Christophe Le Chanu
• Costume Assistant: Grant McCord

Movie Reviews:

• iheardthatmoviewas: We live in a country where our current presidential candidates fail to compare to our current president. We live in a country where minorities have been a subject to police brutality. We live in a country where you must enter debt by taking out a student loan and you are still not guaranteed a successful future. Are you uncomfortable yet? Comfortability won’t be found here or in fashion designer turned director Tom Ford’s second featured film Nocturnal Animals. The director forces you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and the result is the most beautiful disturbingly gripping films of 2016.

  > 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.

  Director Tom Ford starts the film with a close up of a handful of naked older white females dancing nakedly with bodies society would be disturbed by. Ford does not focuses on just one part of the body but every piece of fat, extra skin, crease, scar, and stretch mark to really push your comfortability. No, Ford is not going for shock value, especially not so early in the film because there will be plenty time for that, but he is being nice of enough to give the audience a disclaimer. A disclaimer that nothing will be more comfortable than the opening sequence and if you couldn’t handle that then Nocturnal Animals is going to be one hell of a trip for you. Heck, regardless, Nocturnal Animals is one hell of a trip.

  Nocturnal Animals itself contains a double narrative strand which consists of Susan’s real life and her bringing the book of her ex-husband to life. Ford does not implement a voiceover to let you know that you are now in the world of the book yet he makes you feel that you are watching another film. Ford pulls off a difficult task in making the audience care about both narratives and you want to believe that both are fictional then the uncomfortability levels begin to raise once again as you are forced to remember that one is indeed reality. Tony & Susan, the 1993 novel that the films was adapted from, unfolds how intimate the act of reading could be as an author could tap into the reader’s thoughts, feelings and experience. Tom Ford pulls this same feat but just with the act of watching a film.

  With his first job being a fashion designer, one would only assume to be blown away by the visuals Tom Ford would create. This is true as various scenes of LA and west Texas are beyond stunning but no one would expect the clash of visuals Ford would create with LA and west Texas. The transition from super cool and grotesque LA to a brutal, violent and revengeful west Texas will once again raise your uncomfortability levels.

  After all, this is a revenge film. We learn throughout the film that Susan, who comes from a wealthy family, falls in love with an inspiring author in Jake Gyllenhaal’s Tony but would eventually go on to break his art in three different way. First, by telling him to take a step back from his dream of being an author. Secondly, aborting his child. Then, if the first two wasn’t enough, she lives him for the handsome and dashing Armie Hammer’s Hutton. Susan goes on to live the perfect life with Hutton and 20 years after her divorce with Tony, he decides to quietly place a novel about revenge in her mailbox. We feel Susan’s chills as she reads the novel and without ever needing to say a word to her, Susan’s perfect little world becomes to crumble

  Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams give us exactly what we expect from them. Aaron Taylor-Johnson offers a spine-chilling performance as Ray Marcus and Michael Shannon is fantastic as Bobby Andes. Tom Ford finally takes off his fashion designer hat and puts his fully-fledged director hat on as that was his approach with this film and two narratives. Tom Ford sustains the point that he is not a fashion designer turned director but a full-fledged director as a lesser director would have totally botched this film.

• Reno: **RE
  VEN
  GE**

  This was simply awesome. I meant the story, but the presentation was not my kind. I got the story and I enjoyed it. The performances can’t be neglected either. Both the lead, Jake and Amy were the film’s highlight. But I also happy for Michale Shannon’s Oscars nominee. Based on the novel ‘Tony and Susan’, but for the film adaptation, the title got inspired by the book that appear in the story. From the director of ‘A Single Man’ which is his comeback film after a long gap. I would say a good attempt.

  This is the story of a successful art gallery boss who got divorced and remarried to the man whom she was cheating with from her ex. Her decision was in particular influenced by her mother. Now she thinks she’s happy, but one day her ex sends a copy of his latest novel that’s dedicated in her name. Reading it, she realises the tough time he’d with their separation. Following the end of the book, she encounters an unexpected truth which could affect her life forever.

  A dual layer story. One was fiction and the other one in the real world. But the fictional tale highly influences the main narration and that’s what I call the genuine writing. So the credit must go to none other than the original author. I have seen lots of revenge films, even it can be compared to ‘Three Colours: White’, but the major difference is the sweet revenge. For that alone the film was awesome. The climax was even better. If you understand the narration, you will enjoy it for sure. The filmmaking should have been a bit better. Excluding that the film is not to be skipped.

  _6/10_

• tmdb16528852: A compelling thriller with an open-ended ending that feels far too easy for what it had going for it.

  Nocturnal Animals starts out very strong. It feels reminiscent of Lynch’s Lost Highway or Mulholland Dr. The main character lives a luxurious life surrounded by some very striking pieces of art (art pieces which, throughout the story, make things even more thrilling and surreal). She reads her ex-boyfriend’s novel which quite honestly makes us feel like we’re in a bad dream. The way the novel starts out feels like Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Its opening scene with Aaron Taylor-Johnson so brilliantly builds in tension with his character’s mind games. The story however turns into a bit of a tame crime mystery held up with a sort of fun performance from Michael Shannon. The potential to be a very cryptic thriller is there, but decides instead to put all the pieces together for us. As a Lynch fan, this movie made me crave something stranger. I really wanted to be left mystified but instead I got an ending that was kind of obvious.

• Gimly: Only in a world where a Reality TV star becomes President could Tom Ford be one of the best directors of the year… I guess that’d be this world.

  _Final rating:★★★★ – An all round good movie with a little something extra._