ZDFneo is showing the thriller “Nocturnal Animals” with Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal tonight at 10 p.m. – a radical film that, even with its very last shot, turns everything we thought we knew upside down.
+++ Opinion +++
“Nocturnal Animals” by director and fashion designer Tom Ford is an artfully interlaced noir thriller that inspires with a stylistic, narrative and moral radicalism – and also has a fantastic cast to offer.
if you Today’s TV date, May 21, 2022 at 10 p.m. on ZDFneois simply too late or you may have only come across this TV tip after the broadcast, then you can either check whether the film is still available in the broadcaster’s media library, or you can simply order “Nocturnal Animals”. on DVD or Blu-ray at Amazon:
» “Nocturnal Animals” on Blu-ray at Amazon*
» “Nocturnal Animals” on DVD at Amazon*
The Story of “Nocturnal Animals”
While her husband (Armie Hammer) has jetted off to New York at short notice for an important appointment, art curator Susan (Amy Adams) unexpectedly receives a package from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), whom she left 20 years ago. Inside the package is a copy of the novel Nocturnal Animals which Edward wrote and which he wants Susan to read before it is published.
The manuscript tells the story of a father (also Jake Gyllenhaal) traveling with his wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter on a remote Texas highway when suddenly a psychopathic hillbilly (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his sadistic buddies are on the hunt open up the family. As she reads the story, Susan can’t help but revisit her relationship with Edward at the time – while a number of suppressed dark secrets also surface…
That’s why you should definitely see “Nocturnal Animals”.
Right down to the aforementioned final shot, Nocturnal Animals is a film full of surprises. After his grandiose debut “A Single Man”, we would of course have expected Tom Ford to expose the Californian art high society as hard as he did at the beginning of “Nocturnal Animals” – but with a merciless rape & revenge plot a Texan highway, that doesn’t seem to fit his otherwise exquisite standards at all.
But the strictly and clearly staged “Nocturnal Animals” is a film full of exciting contradictions anyway – because until shortly before the end it is not at all clear how the film plot about Susan and the novel plot about the cruel events in Texas are connected at all. But strangely enough, these so blatantly different elements complement each other very well beforehand – especially when it comes to different images of masculinity.
One of the reasons Susan left Edward at the time was that he wasn’t “manly” enough for her – perhaps that’s why he wrote the book simply to present himself as a hero to her (Jake Gyllenhaal plays a double role, it’s no coincidence). ). But of course it’s not all that simple. Instead of this an incredibly perfidious neo-noir revenge plot unfolds on the home stretch, which is not only super mean, but also comes up with a strong twist…
This is a re-release of an article previously published on DashFUN.
*The links to the Amazon offer are so-called affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we will receive a commission.
