Nocturnal Animals screened for the press today at the Toronto Film Festival (I think the ‘red carpet’ screening is this Sunday) and it received more fantastic reviews – here are a few of them:

Tom Ford’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’ Slays With Cynicism, Wins Over Toronto

Tom Ford‘s “Nocturnal Animals” premiered in Venice last week, but a dizzying amount of press and industry players showed for the Toronto International Film Festival screening of the designer-turned-director’s second feature.

The Princess of Wales theater hit capacity for the Amy Adams-Jake Gyllenhaal thriller, a screenplay Ford adapted from Austin Wright’s novel “Tony and Susan.”

Adams plays an icy modern artist named Susan who receives a package from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). It’s his debut novel, titled “Nocturnal Animals,” a harrowing story of a husband and father named Tony whose wife and daughter are abducted by a group of West Texas thugs.

Susan is happy for the distraction, thanks to a growing divide with current husband Hutton (Armie Hammer). The structure of the film gets a bit meta, vacillating between Susan reading the novel — a complete depiction of the action within the book (Gyllenhaal also plays Tony in the story-within-the-story, as Susan sublimates her ex for his lead character) — and flashbacks to how Susan and Edward met, and eventually how she came to leave him.

It’s plenty of story to chew on, but nothing short of stunning.

Continue reading “Nocturnal Animals” screened today at Toronto Film Festival

Nocturnal Animals is premiereing at Venice Film Festival today and reviews from those at the press screening are popping up. Below is the first review I’ve found from a major film site – it doesn’t mention Isla’s performance but it is slightly spoilery regarding her character, so be warned! Be sure to follow us on Twitter @IslaFisherWeb where I’ll be retweeting more tidbits from the promotion today. Anything particularly Isla-related I’ll post here too.

I don’t think Isla is in attendance at the festival, but we’ll see for sure once the photocall starts very soon…

‘Nocturnal Animals’ Venice Review: Tom Ford Gambles Big and Wins on Second Feature
Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star in a film that successfully melds grit and glamour, the past and the present, and fiction and reality

Given the challenge that most directors have making a single film, writer-director Tom Ford‘s sophomore effort is all the more impressive for being, essentially, two movies in one. One of those films is the kind of “sad people in nice houses” tale you might expect from the couturier-turned-filmmaker behind “A Single Man,” but the other one is the kind of down-and-dirty West Texas revenge thriller that calls to mind Sam Peckinpah.

“Nocturnal Animals” jumps between the “reality” of its own story and a novel that one of the characters is reading, and that’s a tricky leap to accomplish; look no further than another Venice entry, Wim Wenders‘s tedious “Les Beaux Jours d’Aranjuez,” for an example of how not to jump back and forth cinematically between a book and its author.

Amy Adams, already so impressive at this year’s Venice Film Festival with “Arrival,” plays a significantly different kind of character here: Susan is a successful L.A. gallery curator, but her neutral stare and smoky eye shadow speak volumes about her unhappiness. Her distant, withholding husband Hutton (Armie Hammer) is jetting off to New York on another attempt to save his failing business, leaving Susan alone in their glass-box house (complete with a Koons in the back yard) to read a galley of “Nocturnal Animals,” the first novel by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), who never remarried and who has dedicated the book to her.

Continue reading “Nocturnal Animals” premiereing at Venice Film Festival today

As well as this months Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, Nocturnal Animals will also screen at the London Film Festival next month:

The 60th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® announces full 2016 programme

The programme for the 60th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s diverse selection of films and events.

The BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s best and most established film festivals. In its 60th year the programme sees Headline Galas presented at the Odeon Leicester Square on each evening of the 12 day festival. Festival visitors will be able to enjoy a brand new cinema experience with Competition and Strand Galas presented at the new Embankment Garden Cinema, in the beautiful Victoria Embankment Gardens. With 780 cinema-style seats, Dolby 7.1 surround sound and 4k digital projection, this temporary venue brings the festival to even more people and connects screenings in the West End with the BFI’s home cinema at BFI Southbank. This, combined with the Festival’s Special Presentations, a rich, diverse programme of international films, insightful events and talks with leading lights of the international film and creative industries, reaffirms London’s position as the world’s leading creative city.

This year’s festival includes an agenda-setting Symposium event that heralds the BFI’s BLACK STAR project, the UK’s biggest ever season of film and television dedicated to celebrating the range, versatility and power of black actors coming in late October. Films within the Festival programme will amplify the season, while the Symposium will ask searching questions about the continued under-representation of black actors on screen, probing why opportunities for black actors in the US and the UK remain limited and aiming to drive forward a progressive agenda by spotlighting and exploring key issues for the film industry.

The Festival will screen a total of 193 fiction and 52 documentary features, including 18 World Premieres, 8 International Premieres, 39 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 144 short films, including documentary, live action and animated works. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, Screen Talks, Q&As and Industry Talks: LFF Connects during the 60th BFI London Film Festival which runs Wednesday 5 – Sunday 16 October 2016.

Taking place over 12 days, the Festival’s screenings are at venues across the capital, from the West End cinemas – Vue West End and the iconic Odeon Leicester Square; central London venues – BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Picturehouse Central, the ICA, Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Haymarket, Prince Charles Cinema and Ciné Lumière; and local cinemas – the Ritzy in Brixton, Hackney Picturehouse and Curzon Chelsea.

Headline Galas

With NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, Tom Ford returns with a dark, sophisticated adaptation of Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan. With a stellar cast including Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher and Armie Hammer, the film reunites many of the creative team behind A Single Man (LFF2009). (MORE)

(BFI.org.uk)

Why the Venice Film Fest Matters More to Oscar (Sorry, Toronto)

The past few years, while Toronto bickered with Telluride over which festival could screen which premiere when and where, Venice — after some decidedly lackluster editions — took the high road and worked on improving. The result? It’s back on top after a scorecard that saw successful Oscar wins for Venice premieres three years in a row: Gravity, Birdman and, last year, Spotlight. Hollywood has taken notice. The festival is filled with studio titles this year, which means the red carpet will be filled with A-list talent. The four premieres that already are garnering awards buzz:

Focus Features’ $20 Million Gamble

Last year, Focus Features paid a reported $20 million for Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford’s sophomore directorial effort.

Now, Focus is planning on betting a big chunk of their Oscar-campaign money on the dark romance based on Austin Wright’s novel Tony and Susan and starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. Adams plays an art gallery owner who receives her ex-husband’s violent manuscript in the mail, which she interprets as a threatening tale of revenge and regret. It plays out as a story within a story as Isla Fisher plays Adams in novel form.

Could the L.A.-set noir finally deliver Amy Adams and/or Jake Gyllenhaal their long-awaited Oscars? Focus hopes so, with many more categories to push for. “The film will be one of the highlights of Venice,” says Barbera. “Both Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal could start an Oscar campaign from Venice, definitely.”

(THR)