We the Animals
2018 · Directed by Jeremiah Zagar
Original language: English
- drama
The story
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, the youngest, embraces an imagined world all his own.
What it’s like
Warm, hand-tinted textures and a restless handheld intimacy give We the Animals the feel of a half-remembered family album brought to life. Much of it unspools in saturated upstate New York light: sun-bleached summer afternoons, dim kitchens lit by a single lamp, rain-streaked windows in a cramped apartment. The camera stays close to its three boys, often on the move with them, while inserts of animated drawings and grainy super-8 flashes break into the frame like dreams surfacing. Sound is sparse and tactile, with the hum of a fridge, shouting through thin walls, and a soft, melancholy score that swells only at the edges. The mood is tender and unsettled, a bittersweet coming-of-age in which the brothers test their bond and their parents' volatile love. Violence and cruelty are present: domestic fights, physical intimidation, and a raw sense of danger, though nothing is gratuitously graphic, and sexuality is handled with frankness rather than explicitness. Pacing is loose and episodic, drifting like memory rather than building to tidy resolution. It suits a thoughtful, late-night watch for viewers drawn to poetic, character-driven coming-of-age stories that handle queer identity and family strain with honesty and visual imagination.
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