Nimona (2023, PG)

*Premise spoilers.*

I haven’t read the ND Stevenson graphic novel it’s based on, but I loved this film. Nimona is hilarious, heartfelt, action-packed, thoughtful, and hard-hitting in all the best ways. It crams so much wildness and so much emotion into a single movie, which is filled with interesting, well-played characters and terrific animation.

For 1,000 years, the knights have protected the kingdom, holding the monsters at bay just outside the city walls. Little do they know, a monster has just slipped inside. Her name is Nimona, and she’s there to offer her services to Public Enemy #1: Ballister Boldheart, a would-be knight who just murdered the queen at his knighting ceremony. Nimona is of the opinion that every good villain needs a sidekick, but there’s a hitch—Ballister insists he didn’t do it.

Let’s start with the animation, which is colorful, off the wall, and packed with personality. I love the science fantasy look of the kingdom, a technologically advanced society that still maintains its medieval roots. Nimona’s shapeshifting is really well done, and it’s great to watch her change forms in rapid succession, from ostrich to mouse to whale in the blink of an eye. The character designs are great, and the dialogue largely falls away altogether for an emotional sequence in the run-up to the dramatic third act.

The characters here are wonderfully well-crafted. At the heart of the story are Nimona, the acerbic lonely girl who’s been branded a monster, and Ballister, a man determined to do what’s right after the entire kingdom loses faith in him. Their dynamic is a delight from start to finish. I love Balllister’s exasperation and dismay as he repeatedly turns down her pitches to kill and/or maim all his enemies, and I like seeing how Nimona gradually gets under Ballister’s skin, challenging everything he thinks he knows about monsters despite having never met one before. We also get the Director, who runs the knights’ academy, and Ambrosius Goldenloin, Ballister’s boyfriend and newly anointed knight in charge of tracking down the queen’s murderer. The supporting characters who surround these four flesh out the world they inhabit, keeping things fast and funny while also having something valuable to say.

I love how the film explores the lives of the misunderstood. Even before Ballister is named the queen’s killer, he was a subject of much debate within the kingdom, the first commoner to train in the academy: was he proof that anyone can serve the kingdom if they work hard enough, or a dangerous break from tradition that will jeopardize people’s safety? When it looks as though he’s murdered the queen, there are those who find their suspicions vindicated. And yet, as desperate as Ballister is to clear his name and change people’s perceptions of him, it’s incredibly hard for him to see through all the rhetoric he’s been taught about monsters. Nimona certainly doesn’t make things easy in that department, as she’s embraced the role that the public has given her, but she also keeps at Ballister, not letting his “small-minded” attitudes pass uncontested. Over the course of the film, it’s wonderful to watch their dynamic shift and grow. I also like that we see a lot of diversity across the movie, including BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled characters (though I should mention that Ballister, who has a prosthetic arm, is voiced by a nondisabled actor.)

Chloë Grace Moretz just kills it as Nimona. There’s a bit of Hit-Girl energy here, wrapped up in an energetic punk persona that conceals vulnerability beneath the jokes and mayhem. Riz Ahmed does a bang-up job as Ballister, a guy who’s facing a reckoning of his entire worldview on what’s presumably the worst day of his life. He serves as a good straight man opposite Moretz, while also being plenty funny on his own and bringing some great heart. Frances Conroy is effective as the Director, and Eugene Lee Yang does nice work as the conflicted golden boy Ambrosius. The film also features the voices of Beck Bennett, Lorraine Toussaint, RuPaul, and Indya Moore.

Warnings

Violence, mild language, some gross-out humor, implied drinking, thematic elements (including suicidal ideation,) and a disabled character voiced by a nondisabled actor.