Two Paragraph Review: Nocturnal Animals - Slick Tom Ford

Copyright: Focus Features

Tom Ford, aside from having a really cool name and looking as cool as a vintage James Bond character is also one hell of a director. I didn�t get to see his A Single Man but boy oh boy is Nocturnal Animals a deep-cutting film. Following a double narrative in which one takes place in Susan�s (Amy Adams) shattered life lived in a gilded cage of her own making and the other in a fictional book of her former lover (Jake Gyllenhaal), Ford flows across a strong screenplay like the capital ship of the Zheng He�s fleet. I know, that was one long sentence with a historical reference to boot, wasn�t it?

But, Nocturnal Animals is also a long and often hard to watch film, but it still mesmerized me like something that can only become a future neo-noir classic. A big part of this is thanks to Adams who is definitely one of the true modern genius actresses, just like Arrival showed. Her intellect, emotional range, and simple physical presence makes her a woman that easily covers everything Ford�s tale throws at her, and it does throw some curveballs. At the end, I didn�t really get what occurred before I read some interpretation, but it still made a terrific impact on me. The only downside is the strange visual and thematic loosening of the plot at the very end of the novel part, but it could be that I also misinterpreted that as well.

Two Paragraph Review: Colossal - Emotional Friction and Kaiju

Copyright: Neon

Man, Colossal is a weird film, but mostly in a good way. Here, we get to see that there are original ideas but also the reason why so many  Hollywood producers shy away from them - they're tough to pull off and even tougher to sell successfully. I�m still not sure if this movie ended up being what its director Nacho Vigalondo wanted to create, but it is definitely unique.

In the story of two childhood friends who are reunited later in their small town, where they lead semi-purposeless lives, the audience is shown what friction and damage can come about at small age, but also what personal forest fires can arise from them. Aside from the super-odd script which includes monsters that attack Seoul as its main point, the film utilizes Anne Hathaway and even more Jason Sudeikis (who often, for some haunting reason, looks exactly like Ben Affleck) to bring this very relatable struggle to life, both in human and Kaiju form.