Nocturnal Animals (2016)

This is a visual masterpiece, though the stories (yes, more than one) may puzzle some. Jack and I liked it, though. The main character is Susan, a gorgeous, successful, unhappy, art gallery owner played to perfection by Amy Adams, whose glamour here couldn't be more in contrast to her fresh-faced scientist in Arrival. Jake Gyllenhaal (last blogged for Nightcrawler) has the next most scenes, playing two characters. See above--no spoilers. Supporting are Michael Shannon (most recently seen in Loving), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (last blogged for Anna Karenina) as a loose cannon with long hair, Armie Hammer (most recently in The Birth of a Nation) as Adams' dashing husband, and Adams' doppelganger Isla Fisher (last blogged for The Brothers Grimsby) with their hair the exact same shade of red. See this page and scroll down to #4 to see Adams and Fisher pictured side by side. I liked the cameos by Michael Sheen and Andrea Riseborough as Susan's married friends, and Laura Linney as her big-haired mother (most recently in Far from the Madding Crowd, Birdman, and Sully, respectively).

This is the second movie directed and written by fashion designer Tom Ford, so it's no big surprise that it looks so glorious. He co-wrote the screenplay for A Single Man and wrote this one alone, adapting Austin Wright's 2015 novel Tony and Susan.

The opening credit sequence is a stunner. Plus-size older women dance naked with their bodies bouncing in slow motion as the words appear on the screen. Some writers have deplored it as fat shaming (which is kind of what Ford intended but changed his mind when he met the dancers). We saw their bravery and joy. This outspoken writer makes some important points about the sequence.

Abel Korzeniowski's (last scored A Single Man) soundtrack is full of violins swelling and adding to the tension. You can stream it here.

So far the movie has eleven nominations and three wins, including the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival (see my running list of major nominations and wins here). Rotten Tomatoes' critics damn it with faint praise, averaging 71%, but its audiences bring in a more respectable 80%. We think you should see it on the big screen.