First Look: Nicole Kidman in ‘Destroyer’

Erik Anderson August 21, 2018

The first official look at Nicole Kidman in Destroyer is here.

The Academy Award-winning actress is no stranger to deglam and transformation; her role as writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours won her the Oscar for Best Actress. This time, Nicole Kidman plays embittered police detective Erin Bell in director Karyn Kusama’s gritty cop drama that could find them both with Oscar nominations next January. Kidman also has a supporting role in Boy Erased, another TIFF world premiere.

Here is the official TIFF synopsis:

When a new case uncovers traumas from a past undercover operation, an LAPD detective (Nicole Kidman) is forced to face her personal and professional demons, in this genre-defining work from Karyn Kusama (Jennifer’s Body).

From Dirty Harry, to J.J. Gittes, to John McClane, to Jimmy McNulty, cowboy cops have been enjoyed and cheered on throughout the history of film. Nicole Kidman (also appearing at the Festival in Boy Erased) as Erin Bell can be added to that list; her physical transformation here and is extraordinary. Director Karyn Kusama breaks cinematic ground in Destroyer with a detective every bit as badass, brooding, and brash as her male counterparts.

We first meet Bell as she arrives at a murder scene, the type of place you sense she’s been many times before. She’s beaten down by the job — rough around the edges would be an understatement. This current case recalls a previous one, and a previous life too painful to remember. In an attempt to thwart violent bank robberies, Erin and her then partner, Chris, spent months undercover with a young gang of criminals, reminiscent of Bigelow’s Bodhi and his band of surfers. Though still haunted — her daughter would say numbed — by her past, reconnecting with it is the only way for Bell to right old wrongs and find a way forward… or at least a way out.

Kusama sets her contemporary and gritty noir in a verité Los Angeles. Aided by Julie Kirkwood’s arresting photography, she guides us through streets and neighbourhoods that feel as authentic as the complex, non-traditional characters that inhabit them (brilliantly portrayed by Tatiana Maslany, Sebastian Stan, and Bradley Whitford, among others). Penned by screenwriting duo Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, Destroyer, like its central character, is at once tender and violent. And Kusama may be considered as renegade as her anti-hero, changing the landscape of cinema with the audacious choices she’s made as a filmmaker. It’s time to stop considering her bold; she’s just awesome.

Read Meghan White’s TIFF spotlight of Karyn Kusama here.

Destroyer will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month before landing on US shores December 25th from Annapurna Pictures.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.