WE THE ANIMALS

Jeremiah Zagar 2018 United States 94min english
Synopsis:
We the Animals begins by thrusting the viewer into a 1980s-set Where the Wild Things Are – except, instead of one wild boy, we follow three inseparable brothers who turn their poverty-stricken lives in upstate New York into a raucous wonderland. Even when forced to eat cereal and soy sauce for meals after a violent fight between their parents (played with nuanced extremes of emotion by Sheila Vand and Looking’s Raul Castillo), the brothers wrap themselves in a cocoon of physical and emotional affinity that shields them from the harshest elements of their existence. However, their childhood intimacy – captured in a sinewy, naturalistic portrait with effectively jarring fabulist incursions by documentary filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar – begins to fray as parental cruelties seep into their own personas and Jonah (Evan Rosado), the youngest of the siblings, explores an attraction that threatens to tear apart their familial bonds. Through the lens of Jonah’s burgeoning artistic and sexual awakening and with the heartbeat of the film’s throbbing cinematography and spare narrative force, we come face to face with the beast inside that can empower us or eat us alive. – Michael Belcher