Ryan McNeil
There’s a temptation to look down upon the broken. Too often we think they should just get their shit together, clean themselves up, try that little bit harder. To those of us feeling a little less broken, it seems so simple. But maybe it’s not – maybe we’re just hiding it better, or maybe we’re not as badly broken.
DESTROYER is a new Los Angeles crime story by director Karyn Kusama. The story hangs on an investigator named Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman). As the film begins, she happens upon a murder scene and we quickly understand that she has a connection to the case. As we watch her begin to follow the bread crumbs down the violent path, we continually flash back to her younger years. It was then that she and her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan) spent months infiltrating the gang that seems to be connected to this new slaying.
We keep flipping back and forth, comparing present to past. Bell seems hellbent on setting something straight…but what? And why?
DESTROYER is a morally- compromised- cop movie in the vein of HEAT, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, and CHINATOWN. It uses the city of Los Angeles to great effect – employing both its glossier centres and its seedier corners. Watching two characters discuss an illicit cash drop as they stand over Dodger Stadium is a stark reminder that just because the masses in any given place are gathered and having fun, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t dark deeds being carried-out in their midst.
Bell herself is likewise a study in contrast. Threadbare in all the ways a person can be, she is judged as a burnout by damned near everyone she comes across (including her own daughter). But how did she come to be this way? What has she seen that has left her so torn and frayed? And why would she once again fave everything she’s been trying to outrun? The answer to all of these is a master class in character study and story structure thy might well mark a new avenue for Kusama.
If the director does walk further down this avenue, filmgoers everywhere are in for a treat. Her tone is an incredible blend of fragile and macho evoking the best stories told by Patti Jenkins and Kathryn Bugelow.
From the shakedown in the spiffy mansion, to the intense shootouts in the banks, DESTROYER has all of the hallmarks of a classic crime film…and yet, with Kidman and Kusama providing its beating heart, it feels like something fresh.
Someone like Erin Bell might never fully deal with their demons – listening to her daughter and ex-husband describe her makes that perfectly clear. DESTROYER presents another option; to perhaps quiet those demons for just one day. Perhaps that will allow someone like Bell a moment’s peace.