Family unfriendly? Anti-romantic? Nihilistic? With disturbing nudity? Finally, the perfect Christmas movie!

by Thom Yee

Nocturnal Animals images courtesy of Focus Features

Okay. It’s the 17^th. Of December. It’s almost Christmas. So here’s a review about the effect a sadistic, cruel book has on a lonely, isolated, and unhappy woman. It also starts off with a deeply unsettling sequence of fairly explicit nudity. And it’s December 17^th, almost Christmas. Man, we gotta plan these things better. I guess there’s always next year.

In a lot of ways I think December is actually the best time of year for new movies, with a mix of low-brow, seasonally oriented fare and critically acclaimed features being released in near equal measure. While Oscar season — that time of year when the studios pump out their most prestigious, most award-worthy material in a vain attempt to eke out a profit from films that might not have been otherwise noticed — unofficially starts in November, by the time we get to December, we finally have a real measure of what the overarching narrative will be of that year in movies. We’ve had or will soon have the chance to see most of the films we’ll ever see in that year, and we can begin to make out the shape of the Oscars to come. Continue reading →