Destroyer
First screened in September 2018
Director: Karyn Kusama. Cast: Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany, Jade Pettyjohn, Scoot McNairy, Toby Huss, James Jordan, Bradley Whitford, Shamier Anderson, Zach Villa, Joseph Fatu, Kelvin Han Yee, Colby French, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Mickey O'Hagan, Cecily Breaux. Screenplay: Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Twitter Capsule:
Generates some tragic force, though less than it seems to have hoped and via an uneven path. Tighter edits would help.
Second Capsule:
Kidman is compelling but a level or two away from her most confident work. Tough part: rogue cop + dumpster-fire mom + Gollum. With secrets!
VOR:③
Some of this is fairly routine bad-cop stuff. Some of it is a welcome lunge at tragic scope, centering a character who only gets harder to support.