Nocturnal Animals
Focus Features | Release Date: November 18, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
14
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 2, 2016
Confidently dovetailing three strands that depict present and past reality, as well as a dark fictional detour that functions as a blunt real-life rebuke, the film once again demonstrates that Ford is both an intoxicating sensualist and an accomplished storyteller, with as fine an eye for character detail as he has for color and composition. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 2, 2016
Some of the scenes in the LA art world are a bit broad. But this is a terrifically absorbing thriller with that vodka-kick of pure malice. Read full review
91
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 3, 2016
With everything going on, Nocturnal Animals is the sort of narrative and tonal minefield that a lesser director could easily have gotten lost in. Ford allows us to consider and cherish each unique thread and wonder just how it could all possibly come together. Read full review
91
IndieWireBen CrollSep 2, 2016
Nocturnal Animals is an impressively ambitious effort, one part mean Texas thriller, one part middle-age melodrama, and makes for a meta-textual riddle that is almost as pleasurable to reflect on as it to actually watch. Read full review
90
We Got This Covered Darren RueckerNov 16, 2016
Nocturnal Animals confirms Tom Ford as an essential director, as he gives us two dazzling stories that combine for one powerful movie experience. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 2, 2016
Ford is a true moviemaker — a social observer who’s a junkie for sensation and narrative. He has structured Nocturnal Animals beautifully, so that the past feeds into the present, and fiction into reality. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 18, 2016
A work of exceptional, undeniable craft, but it’s also a movie that’s meant to stick to you a little bit. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 17, 2016
Nocturnal Animals employs one of the most inventive uses of neo noir tropes and techniques I have seen in recent years. Intense, insightful, and strangely powerful, Tom Ford’s adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel, Tony and Susan, assumes an intelligent audience. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 16, 2016
Ford hits it out of the park again in Nocturnal Animals, a stunning film noir that resonates with ghostly, poetic terror. Read full review
85
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeSep 2, 2016
Nocturnal Animals packs a real punch and confirms that “A Single Man” was no fluke. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattNov 17, 2016
The movie’s lofty narrative ambitions never quite catch up with its aesthetics, but it’s still a fantastic beast of a film, intoxicating and strange. Read full review
80
Village VoiceBilge EbiriNov 17, 2016
Ford has given us a surprisingly candid peek into the creative process, into the strange little hurts — perceived or real, toxic or justified — that make up the soul of an artist. No, we may not like what we find in there. But I’m not sure he does, either. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 17, 2016
The writer-director invests a tricky narrative juggling act with an intensity of human feeling that is the opposite of skin-deep. He tears through the veil of slick, self-admiring style that has both unlocked and at times obscured his very real merits as an artist. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Nov 16, 2016
It sounds a little too clever, but it's not. It's just clever enough. Read full review
80
EmpireWill LawrenceNov 7, 2016
Ford’s artfully composed and emotionally clever noir is well-paced and, in stark contrast to the naked flesh that opens the film, never, ever sags. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyOct 31, 2016
Style is substance in Ford’s second film. Unlike many puzzle-piece movies, it thrills on every level. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 10, 2016
Everything that works in Nocturnal Animals is intoxicating, provocative, delicious – and happily, so is everything that doesn’t. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 22, 2016
There may be less than meets the eye here. But what meets the eye is pretty striking. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldNov 22, 2016
Nocturnal Animals is, I think, a beautiful mess, but I might have to watch it again to be sure. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 17, 2016
Like Ford’s debut, Nocturnal Animals treats film as a medium of luxury, where the emotive and the self-indulgent cross paths. He is primarily a sensualist. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 17, 2016
It’s a tale bluntly told that arouses intense, evanescent emotion and then leaves you haunted, long afterward, by provocative but arguably answerable questions. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 17, 2016
From the bizarre opening (featuring a plethora of naked obese women) to the film’s parallel narratives conceit, there's no shortage of style, though incoherence butts in from time to time. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 17, 2016
There’s a mood, a feeling about life, that pervades Nocturnal Animals, one that’s expressed in visual terms. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithNov 16, 2016
I’d love to tell you Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals is a cinematic masterpiece, and for most of its running time, that’s what I was planning to do. You must see it. But a great movie requires a great ending, and Nocturnal Animals doesn’t have one. Read full review
75
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 2, 2016
Ford’s attempt to synthesize the two halves of his film into a coherent whole is what sells it all short. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 2, 2016
As a screenwriter, Ford has made some brave choices in a difficult, complex adaptation. As a director, though, he veers between delivering far too much, and yet not quite enough. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovNov 16, 2016
It’s a narratively audacious, ultra-stylish, and at times queasily violent film that’s likely to polarize audiences even as they find themselves unable to tear their eyes from the screen. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 17, 2016
I don’t mean it as a cheap shot, but Nocturnal Animals is very like an exquisitely rendered window display. It’s something at which you pause and peer into and catch your breath — and then move on. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoNov 14, 2016
Nocturnal Animals gets close to a double-barreled satirical thriller commenting on the historic rift between city and country. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 17, 2016
There’s much to admire in Nocturnal Animals, including Mr. Ford’s ambition, but too often it feels like the work of an observant student. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 17, 2016
There’s a story within a story here, one more compelling and relatable than the other. Perhaps that’s by design. But even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean the two parts co-exist comfortably, no matter what the intent. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 12, 2016
As shot by the gifted cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, Nocturnal Animals is beautiful—or at least arresting—every minute, and it sure isn’t boring. But it’s unclear exactly what Ford is trying to say, though it’s clear he’s trying hard to say something. And that’s the most frustrating thing about this picture. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneySep 10, 2016
Nocturnal Animals doesn’t have much substance, but its dazzling style is hard to completely resist. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 2, 2016
It's gorgeous, lush and fun, but there's an underlying silliness to the endeavour which, despite occasional archness, constantly threatens to trivialise events. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 23, 2016
Nocturnal Animals is far less imaginative than even your most banal nightmare. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 18, 2016
The only performances worth discussing are delivered by the always excellent Michael Shannon, the Texas detective who tries to set things right, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the scurviest of the marauders. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 17, 2016
This is a bloodless, cold, self-congratulatory exercise in style for style’s sake. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedNov 16, 2016
The juxtaposition of tone, theme and content in the narratives fails beyond the basic ideas. This leaves the capable Gyllenhaal to do little more than scream and rant hysterically. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 16, 2016
The actors all suffer beautifully, but their pain doesn’t register: It’s all affectations and red-rimmed eyes. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 15, 2016
The terrible, only-happens-in-the-movies crime and his character’s investigation of it are all that animate these “Nocturnal Creatures.” Read full review
50
ConsequenceSarah KurchakSep 10, 2016
Lofty ideas of class, thwarted ambition, the superficiality of L.A. life, the nature of love, and the meaning of art are all explicitly addressed – and maybe discussed in a pretentious conversation or two – and then just as easily dropped, as if the simple act of naming themes is enough to establish their continued relevance in the film. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneNov 14, 2016
I felt sorry for Gyllenhaal, berated in both his personae for being weak, and for Adams, strapped and laced into a role that scarcely lets her breathe. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonDave CalhounSep 2, 2016
It's the fashion designer's second movie after his 2009 debut A Single Man, and this is a far more ambitious film, with its sprawling cast, various periods, layered storytelling and musings on life and art. But it's also far less endearing and coherent, and feels almost unbearably cruel and cynical. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 17, 2016
When you combine the megawattage of Gyllenhaal and Adams with Ford’s directorial … well, “prowess” would be too strong a word, so let’s go with “vision.” So, when you combine those two actors with Ford’s vision, what you get is a ridiculous, high-camp mess that could easily be mistaken for substance, if it weren’t so irredeemably silly. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 27, 2016
This is a soulless endeavor that would alarm if Ford devised it on his own. Instead, he shares blame with Austen Wright's novel Tony and Susan, adapted into parallel narratives; one empty, the other leaking blood. Read full review
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