A sleek, chilly revenge melodrama that works best as a mood piece: gorgeous to look at, emotionally bruising, and deliberately unsettling. It’s uneven in its symbolism and can feel self-consciously cruel, but the performances and formal control make it memorable.
Nocturnal Animals
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Drama · Thriller
Fri · 1h 56m
Director: Tom Ford
Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon
Overview
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.
Director
Tom Ford
Cast
Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon
Curator Review
Verdict
A sleek, chilly revenge melodrama that works best as a mood piece: gorgeous to look at, emotionally bruising, and deliberately unsettling. It’s uneven in its symbolism and can feel self-consciously cruel, but the performances and formal control make it memorable.
Best for
Viewers who like stylish psychological thrillers
Fans of revenge stories with a literary frame
People drawn to bleak, emotionally charged dramas
Audiences who appreciate strong visual design and precise performances
Skip if
You want a straightforward thriller with clean answers
You’re sensitive to sexual violence and cruelty on screen
You prefer warm, empathetic character studies
You dislike films that feel deliberately cold or mannered
Overview
Nocturnal Animals is a polished, poisonous piece of work: part breakup story, part revenge fantasy, part critique of emotional cowardice. Tom Ford stages it with severe elegance, using color, composition, and pacing to turn regret into something almost tactile. The result is less a conventional thriller than a stylish wound that keeps reopening.
Worth noting
Amy Adams anchors the film with a performance built on restraint and dread, while Jake Gyllenhaal gives the dual roles a haunted, hollow quality. Michael Shannon cuts through the film with the kind of rough-edged authority that keeps the whole thing from floating away into pure design. Even when the symbolism is blunt, the movie’s control is hard to ignore.
Bottom line
It’s also a divisive film by design. Some viewers will read its cruelty as incisive; others will find it smug, punishing, or emotionally manipulative. If you’re in the right mood for a glossy, bitter, and deeply uneasy adult thriller, it lands with force.
Top Letterboxd reviews
lauren (5★) · 9748 likes
michael shannon: *coughs* jake gyllenhaal: *cries* amy adams: *sleeps* me: this is a five star movie
özzy (5★) · 8747 likes
when they showed Jake Gyllenhaal taking a shower the guy sitting behind me in the theatre let out a huge breath and said "holy f*ck"
kennedy (4★) · 5336 likes
the scene where susan can't concentrate at work and phases out when people are speaking to her because she's thinking about jake's facial features is the most relatable scene in any film ever
shay (3.5★) · 4959 likes
if my current husband was armie hammer i'd also be thinking about the times i was with my ex husband jake gyllenhaal
Felipe F. (4★) · 3290 likes
Why does this movie have a jumpscare and why is it one of the scariest I've ever seen?
Themes
revenge, regret, failed marriage, art and authorship, memory and projection, violence, masculinity, emotional repression