Director Collin Schiffli keeps a tight focus on character, as the couple's plight becomes increasingly dire.

| Nov 2, 2016

"Animals" is a stark, brilliant, uncompromising, beautifully acted piece of work.

Full Review | May 22, 2015

The couple's doomed romance feels familiar from numerous other films about addiction, and the movie is downright bad whenever it aspires to visual poetry.

| May 21, 2015

This is not a "slippery slope" movie, like other stories about addicts. In "Animals," they are already at the bottom of the slope.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 15, 2015

It's gritty and grim, but "Animals" is also a gripping portrait of young junkies in love.

| May 14, 2015

The trajectory of "Animals" is obvious in the opening minutes of this numbing if well-acted junkie drama.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 14, 2015

Mr. Schiffli shoots in a fluid style, tweaking colors and focus to register changes in perception and feeling.

| May 14, 2015

The way Schiffli blends grim reality with drug-induced fantasy is fascinating.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 14, 2015

The actors do their best to bring humanity to the junkie clichs, assisted by their character-actor mix of familiarity and anonymity.

| Original Score: C+ | May 14, 2015

Dastmalchian and Shaw are both superb as lovers whose devotion to each other remains unshaken by their otherwise all-encompassing addiction.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 13, 2015

The premise - homeless drug addicts in love - is depressing, but as directed by Collin Schiffli, the film has warmth and humor, ultimately conveying a sense of redemptive hope that Dastmalchian likely brings to the table.

| May 12, 2015

It sticks firmly to a Kerouac-lite immersion into young love rather than a more provocative portrait of the hazards inherent to modern urban life.

| May 11, 2015

It is a character study that reminds me of the first time I saw Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy. And it could eventually herald the arrival of as important a talent.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 21, 2014

Animals presents an authenticity often lacking in films about drug abuse. It largely has Dastmalchin's screenplay to thank.

| Mar 21, 2014

Dastmalchian and Shaw are thoroughly convincing both as vividly drawn, emotionally complex individuals, and as a couple inextricably bound by addiction and enabling. Among the well-cast supporting players, John Heard makes the most significant impact.

| Mar 21, 2014

Dastmalchian's screenwriting debut bodes well for an alternative career alongside his performances.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 21, 2014

Grimy and sad but not sensationalistic, the debut feature is like Drugstore Cowboy drained of its hipness and sex appeal -- not a bad thing, certainly, but also not something that ensures strong commercial prospects beyond a limited arthouse run.

| Mar 21, 2014