Nocturnal Animals (2016)

It's divisive. Only 66% of audiences liked it, by Google's archived audience score. Critics agree, scoring it 70%.

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. Wikipedia ↗

Nocturnal Animals is a 2016 American neo-noir psychological thriller written and directed by Tom Ford, based on Austin Wright's 1993 novel Tony and Susan. Amy Adams stars as Susan Morrow, a wealthy Los Angeles art gallery owner trapped in an empty marriage, who receives the manuscript of a novel written by her ex-husband Edward Sheffield, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. As Susan reads the violent, devastating story — depicted in the film as a parallel narrative starring Gyllenhaal as a man whose family is terrorized on a remote Texas highway — she recognizes it as Edward's artistic revenge for the way she treated him during their marriage.

Tom Ford, the fashion designer making his second film, created a visually stunning triptych — the glossy, sterile world of Susan's present life, the warm-toned flashbacks of her relationship with Edward, and the dusty, terrifying Texas highway of the novel. Michael Shannon's performance as the laconic, cancer-stricken detective Bobby Andes in the novel-within-the-film was the film's most celebrated element, earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his menacing portrayal of the highway criminal Ray Marcus.

Nocturnal Animals earned $32 million worldwide on a $22 million budget.