Review: Animals

Animals
Cert: 15 / 109 mins / Dir. Sophie Hyde / Trailer



Occasionally there's comes a film that I'm glad to have experienced in a cinema, even if I can't go so far as saying I actually enjoyed it (cf). The work is usually well constructed, tightly written and soundly performed. And watching it in a custom-built, dedicated auditorium is the level playing field that all movies deserve. Even accounting for differences in audience demographics and cultural norms, there should be something in any film that I can find to admire. Even if I can't go so far as saying I actually enjoyed it.

I wish I'd liked Animals more, even though I can't think of any inclusion (or omission) which would have facilitated that. Well done, Sophie Hyde. I guess.

SCREEN

Adapted for the big screen by Emma Jane Unsworth from her 2014 novel of the same name, we meet aspiring novelist and full-time barista Laura (Holliday Grainger), and her best friend Tyler (Alia Shawkat). With the former in her early thirties and the other rapidly approaching that third decade, the pair are trying their damnedest to drown out the ticking of social clocks and expectational standards by continuing to party like teenagers.

And they're doing a pretty fine job of it when Laura meets pianist Jim (Fra Fee) and a serious relationship blooms. But Jim's idea of a great time is the occasional night out, and pretty soon Laura feels torn between her hedonistic past and a responsible, potentially achievement-filled, future. Can Laura reconcile the two halves of her personality? More to the point, should she?

GODDESS

So. Best friends having a great time, one of them gets a boy/girlfriend, the boy/girlfriend doesn't really click with the best friend, tensions ensue. It's not a bristling new idea for a story, and that's very much the point of Animals. Hyde's film focuses more on the interweaving characterisation, and she's got a strong cast to deliver that.

Alia Shawkat is on fine form, selling her role as only she can. Vivacious to the point of obstreperous, Tyler is the kind of person you love to have at your party as long as it's not you who's having to steer them away from the crockery all evening. But the real standout here is Holliday Grainger, largely because hers is the only part in the story which feels fully written. For all the character's faults, Laura tip-toes along a fine line of being sympathetic and unlikeable, never faltering too far either way. Ultimately she's just heartbreakingly human, the core of what keeps the film watchable for its run-time. It's not as if Grainger even needs a dramatic showreel at this point in her career, but Animals would fit the bill in and of itself.

GIANT

But it becomes more of a problem when everything begins to fall apart and the mood of the film sags accordingly. Hyde over-directs pretty much every scene, any trace of nuance in the characterisation ground into the boards as the cast emote like they're in panto at a borstal. The highs are ear-splittingly high, the lows correspondingly despondent. The dim light at the end of the tunnel is merely the prospect of Laura 'getting by' - hardly an aspiration - while the excesses of her peers echo noisily throughout the quieter scenes. And all of this is intentional, but Animals is often hard work. At times it feels like a Trainspotting fan-film crowdfunded by Mumsnet, without any deeper message, bordering on contemporary mis-lit. Because Laura is the only character who's properly explored, everyone else feels two-dimensional. And this leads to an unintentional (I hope) claustrophobia as those surrounding Laura turn into walls, holding her in place.

We end on a great note of quiet optimism, but it's one perhaps suited to a more delicate film. Although that could just be my inner cynic being surprised the movie doesn't close with a higher bodycount.

There's a chance I was never going to get fully immersed in this world, of course. There's even the sneaking suspicion that it's Not Intended For Me™. But I do think hinging an entire movie around one performance is a huge gamble. Worse still, I can't be sure if it even paid off...

Well I was hoping for Thoroughbreds with a little less murder, but it's not even that.



It's a bit Sunday Night DVD, but if you think it'll be your thing then it almost certainly will.



As above.



Grainger is very, very good.



Almost certainly.



There isn't.



Level 2: Alia Shawkat is in this and she was in Pee Wee's Big Holiday with Paul 'RX-24' Reubens.



I agree, it does read like a 3, doesn't it?




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