Riot Material October 16, 2018 Remarkably, Kusama has crafted a compelling crime-drama that plays as a sharply comical yet scathing commentary on the glorification of rogue...
New York Times December 25, 2018 Kusama is still figuring out how to balance form and pulp, but she has a singular unapologetic idea about what women can and cannot do onscree...
Culturess November 21, 2018 Inserting a woman into this male-dominated genre could yield positive results, but Destroyer ends up self-destructing.
Boston Globe January 9, 2019 Neither dense, distracting makeup nor confused, convoluted chronology can disguise the fact that Karyn Kusama’s "Destroyer," scripted by Phil...
This uneven and downbeat film will play to small audiences – but that it exists is kind of wonderful.
Associated Press December 26, 2018 But while "Destroyer" can be overwrought and mechanical, it’s an often gripping, well-crafted crime drama with distinction of its own in the...
This is one of those radical change-your-image performances that tries too hard to defy our expectations. Kidman has indeed proved in the past to b...
[Kidman’s] collaboration with Karyn Kusama, who directed this film, is another example of her willingness to back a filmmaker still to p...
Globe and Mail September 6, 2018 Director Karyn Kusama shifts dexterously between the present and the past, unspooling a satisfyingly twisted piece of storytelling by writers...
ReelViews December 28, 2018 Nihilistic in every aspect of production, Destroyer illustrates how obsession that germinates from a soil poisoned by guilt can result in a bl...
TheWrap December 19, 2018 Despite the film’s needlessly fractured structure and a relentlessly grim story, Kidman and Kusama seem to be speaking the same language...
MovieFreak.com December 27, 2018 Thanks in large part to Kidman’s internalized tenacious ferocity, Destroyer became a cold-blooded thriller I had no wish to tear my eyes...
[Nicole Kidman] is a force, and a relentless one, but she does what she does with the unswerving focus of a Terminator gone rogue, a...
The Guardian September 12, 2018 It’s a mechanical noir dressed up as something more substantial and this is especially felt in an ending that drowns in unearned profund...
4Columns December 14, 2018 Everywhere strain is evident. Kidman and the filmmakers are unremitting in their determination to show us the effort required to portray such ...
Newsday December 26, 2018 "Destroyer" is a worthwhile film, especially for moviegoers who love film noir in all its phases: The hard-boiled Bogart era, the nihilist tak...
Bitch Media February 28, 2019 Bell lets her past eat her alive without taking the time to fully understand it-so we can’t either. That is ultimately her, and the film&rsqu...
The Australian March 22, 2019 The film has to be seen for Kidman. In the scenes set in the present she has so transformed herself that at first she’s hardly recognisable.
Los Angeles Times December 24, 2018 The characters' savage amorality is so pervasive that it plays not as truth but as a cold aesthetic choice, one that keeps us at arm’s l...
Irish Times January 25, 2019 Sadly, the film is too muddled, overly serious, and wholly implausible to fly.
A solid-enough L.A. noir whose hook, and albatross, is the transformation of a beautiful Oscar-winning actress into a desiccated crone.
CNN.com December 26, 2018 Kidman’s brooding, mumbling, unglamorous turn comes in a vehicle so fraught with clichés that the movie feels as if it’s stumbling...
Destroyer is still a pulpy crime movie rather than a profound tragedy… But the unsentimental yet sympathetic way it treats its heroine is oddl...
USA Today December 24, 2018 Kidman is the main draw here. In a modern noir about people unable to escape the darkness of their past, she’s scary good as a tortured...
Salon.com December 25, 2018 Despite the film’s uneven qualities, "Destroyer" is compelling because of Kidman’s unflinching performance. The actress appears in ever...
indieWire September 6, 2018 Kidman’s such a furious engine of rage driving the story forward that she almost becomes a caricature… but this unapologetically pulpy d...
Variety September 6, 2018 Even though the film unravels a bit toward the end, it destroys the standard confines of what an actress can do on-screen, allowing her to be...
film.avclub.com September 26, 2018 At the center of it all is Kidman, the indisputable heart of the film, whose all-in performance elevates Destroyer above a well-made cop drama...
Cinema Scope September 6, 2018 Intricately written, superbly shot, and at least 20 minutes too long… Destroyer doesn’t quite ennoble the prestige-genre model it a...
Kidman brings such compelling conviction to her role as a tormented detective that she single handedly imbues the film with urgency and authen...
The Guardian January 23, 2019 I have to say I found Kidman’s performance superb: smart, committed, utterly absorbing.
Daily Telegraph January 24, 2019 Destroyer’s grim and grubby vision of Los Angeles is a decent enough cover version of the fractured metropolis iconised by Michael Mann...
Kusama’s eye and a fantastic performance from Kidman powers this relentless, grimy mystery – almost all the through some pacing and...
RogerEbert.com December 25, 2018 This is a pretty rote story, and many of the plot points beggar belief, but Kusama’s flourishes help somewhat to elevate the material in...
Los Angeles Times September 10, 2018 The grim relentlessness with which "Destroyer" seesaws between time frames – as if to make sure that no state of abjection, past or present, g...
Slant Magazine December 17, 2018 The longer the film goes on, the more it becomes apparent that there’s barely enough substance here to support an Aesop’s fable, let al...
TheWrap September 6, 2018 Kidman herself, clearly one of the finest actors of her generation, or anyone else’s. Kidman has fully absorbed Erin inside her, as there doe...
Rolling Stone December 25, 2018 Nicole Kidman, playing a burned-out LAPD cop, proves she’s as actress who knows how to stay the course, no matter how twisty, tangled or...
Times (UK) October 15, 2018 It’s a career-high characterisation, at times unlikeable…but always, in every single frame, intensely compelling.
Empire Magazine January 22, 2019 A grim, dour dive into one LA cop’s unravelling, which centres on a truly transformative performance from Nicole Kidman.
The Guardian January 27, 2019 There’s a clear thematic debt to such character-driven 1970s classics as Serpico or The French Connection, but Destroyer also feels prof...
Austin Chronicle January 10, 2019 Kusama has the chops to fulfill the ambitions of this undertaking, but even her savvy can’t justify the conflated, white-light ending that&rs...
Financial Times January 23, 2019 Grunge feminism laid on with a shovel.
812filmreviews September 11, 2018 A film that’s languid in pace, yet saved by its pristine acting and exceptional score.
A masterful performance by Kidman, who has proven over the last few years that she has deep reserves of talent.
Detroit News January 18, 2019 Kidman is one of our great screen actresses, but here she destroys everything in her path.
Vulture December 20, 2018 Kidman’s performance as this broken, obsessed woman is powerful. Breathless, rasping through her teeth, she conveys both vulnerability and in...
Toronto Star January 10, 2019 An astonishing and haunting performance by Nicole Kidman… demonstrates she is the peak of her skills as an actor.
Hollywood Reporter September 6, 2018 Ultimately feels affected in its aspirations toward making some profound statement about self-abasement and sacrifice, making one feel like rejecti...
Refinery29 December 18, 2018 Her [Kidman] performance… is a beacon in a film that tends to gets lost in its own convoluted plot. It makes Destroyer not just worth seeing...
Independent January 24, 2019 The film may be flawed and uneven but it provides a platform for its ever-versatile star to give one of her strongest and least characteristic...
The Ringer December 26, 2018 As a piece of film direction, Destroyer has enough heft, momentum, and texture to hopefully earn Kusama more opportunities at this elevated bu...
leonardmaltin.com December 25, 2018 The casting is unusually good, but that’s the only positive aspect of Destroyer I can point out. Apart from that, it’s a psycholog...
New York Post December 20, 2018 The particulars of the story are typical for the genre - a heist gone wrong, a slippery crime boss – but they’re elevated to viscer...
Add a short review
280 characters