Nicole Kidman Gives Us What We Want

If you’ve watched more than a handful of movies over the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly seen a disconcerting ad for AMC Theatres, extolling not only that company but the beauty of the movies more broadly. It’s called “We Make Movies Better,” and Nicole Kidman is the only actor in it. First, she’s outside on a wet day, perhaps moments after the last drops of a downpour, stepping high-heeled into a puddle in which a bright-red neon AMC sign is reflected. Her coat has a hood, but, before she’s safely inside the theatre, she peels it off slowly, the better to smile up at the marquee. Then Kidman’s inside, coat gone, walking the cinema’s empty halls wearing a glittering, sequin-heavy pin-striped suit. She waxes poetic about the movies, about how “we need that, all of us—that indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim, and we go somewhere we’ve never been before.” The light from the projectionist’s booth haloes out from behind her head in warm, sanctifying rays, electrifying strands of her hair.