We the Animals (2018)
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We the Animals Movie Review
We the Animals is a 2018 indie drama film directed by Jeremiah Zagar and starring Raul Castillo. It’s a very good, interesting experiment that mostly really works.
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“I’m an adult.
I got rights“
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Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah embraces an imagined world all on his own. That is the plot of the film and, needless to say, it’s quite reminiscent to ‘The Florida Project’ and that film was better for me.
Still though, this is another strong and authentic take on childhood mostly thanks to those imagination sequences which are so well done and so originally executed that I was really impressed by them. They really make this cinematic experience special and worth watching, even if it’s otherwise rather uneven. They beautifully showcased the power of childhood and the distorted, magical way children follow the world. It was truly remarkable.
That being said, the rest of the film isn’t all that special and it’s overly slow, meditative and artistic. It’s limited in its audience and it’s particularly not dramatic in its style. I liked some of its artistic moments – of course those fantasy moments again are the best – but for the most part the movie is too slow to be enjoyed more and way too subdued which it shares interestingly enough with a lot of indies from this year.
We the Animals is well acted across the board. Raul Castillo of ‘Looking’ fame is here which was a nice surprise and he’s quite good. I also really enjoyed the kids as their performances are quite solid for children. The character development though could have been better individually, but together they are great.
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The movie is solidly directed by Jeremiah Zagar and particularly well written in script and dialogue. But its score is so good and its cinematography is simply striking that the movie achieved a rather strong artistic sensibility in its audio-visuals. It’s accomplished filmmaking for limited audiences, but still worth checking out particularly for its amazing portrayal of childhood’s imagination.
We the Animals is overly slow, meditative and artistic. Thus, it’s difficult to get into. But still, I ended up really liking it thanks in large part to its impressively original, visually gorgeous portrayal of the power of children’s imagination. Those fantastical sequences are both beautifully cinematic and conceptually authentic.
