Directed by Karyn Kusama (The Invitation and better-than-you-remember Jennifer’s Body), Destroyer stars Nicole Kidman as Erin Bell, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who’s haunted by a past event involving an undercover operation, and how it affects her present life. In his mixed Fantastic Fest review, FilmDrunk‘s Vince Mancini praised Destroyer for not indulging in the “gorgeous actor/actress turns into a Monster” trope, which makes the film “interesting… if not entirely…good.” Based on the trailer above, it’s a different, more hardscrabble kind of performance than we usually see from Kidman, whose busy upcoming slate also includes Boy Erased, which like Destroyer is also receiving Oscar buzz, and Aquaman, which is not. (I’m as surprised as you are that Jason Momoa didn’t star in a movie called Destroyer first.)
Here’s the official plot synopsis.
Destroyer follows the moral and existential odyssey of LAPD detective Erin Bell who, as a young cop, was placed undercover with a gang in the California desert with tragic results. When the leader of that gang re-emerges many years later, she must work her way back through the remaining members and into her own history with them to finally reckon with the demons that destroyed her past.
Destroyer, which also stars Sebastian Stan, Tatiana Maslany, Bradley Whitford, Jade Pettyjohn, and Scoot McNairy (Gordo!), opens this December.
