Nicole Kidman has been a lot of things, most of them crispy-fresh housewives or weepy, wilted dames (like the matriarch from The Others). In Destroyer, her newest movie, she's something completely different: a crusty, grumpy cop. It's as if she stole a role from Kyle Chandler or Brad Pitt — and more power to her! Steal from the men and give to the women; that's what Robin Hood would do, right?
Destroyer, produced by indie powerhouse Annapurna Pictures, follows LAPD detective Erin Bell (Kidman), who has a traumatic history with the force. Early in her career, she went undercover only to face terrible consequences. Much later in her career, she has to reckon with her past once more. Which is all to say, at some point in this movie, Kidman, bedecked in a mousy grey wig, wields a massive machine gun. Toto, we're not in Boy Erased (Kidman's other movie coming out this year) anymore.
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"I'm mad. I'm still mad. It's burned a circuit in my brain," Erin mutters under her breath at a diner.
Director Karyn Kusama, who directed the direly underrated Jennifer's Body, helms Destroyer; this is her first feature-length project since 2015's The Invitation, which was critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. Kusama had been a Hollywood wunderkind of sorts since entering the scene at 32, when she entered Sundance with her movie Girlfight. A 2016 Buzzfeed profile charted Kusama's subsequent struggles in the industry: Her follow-up, Æon Flux, was a box office failure, thanks to a meddlesome studio and Jennifer's Body, the Diablo Cody-penned thriller, is one of the more fascinating movie failures in recent history. (The movie is, now, beloved by film fanatics. At the time it was released, it was greeted less-than-enthusiastically.) Kusama directed Destroyer from a script written by Phil Hay and Matt Manifredi, the same men behind The Invitation. In addition to Kidman, the movie stars Sebastian Stan, Bradley Whitford, and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany.
Watch the full trailer, below. Destroyer comes out on December 25.
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