If only one definition fits, this is a story of discovery and learning sifted with enough fantastic elements to deserve recognition as an atypical work, different from all the others. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2024

An always unpredictable film that pendulates between (sub)genres... going from the serious to the comic and vice versa quite naturally and with a very visual and creative display. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 16, 2024

What could have been a silly metaphor about puberty becomes an interesting fable about society’s eternal drive to divide itself into Us vs. Them. More than a treatise, though, "Kingdom" offers some lovely, poetic sequences that can linger in your memory.

| Aug 30, 2024

A film that combines the initiation story with the myth of the werewolf to invite the viewer to reflect on the fear of what is different and the importance of acceptance, both on an individual and social level. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 13, 2024

Magical realism can be either profound or deeply silly, and The Animal Kingdom, for better or worse, splits the difference.

| Jul 25, 2024

Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi fantasy has too much sensitivity and good taste to be the proper horror-thriller or creature feature that it almost resembles.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 1, 2024

Beautifully shot while perfectly cast and helmed, Animal Kingdom is an exuberant example of humane cinema at its best.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 1, 2024

It’s a profound message that uses science fiction when speaking about its themes [...] Cailley never soapboxes or clarifies his real-world parallels; he trusts his audience to interpret his message. That’s the rewarding power of genre.  

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 28, 2024

It's not done like a Hollywood tentpole film, much more focused on character and intimacy rather than showing off the effects.

| Mar 23, 2024

I liked this a lot. It's not really a horror film... It really is a sort of humanistic film.

| Mar 23, 2024

Stay for how Kircher and Duris embed a father-son story into the fantastical elements, and transform a far-out tale of genetics run amuck into an elegy about the pain of letting go.

| Mar 20, 2024

The Animal Kingdom is a profound exploration of fear and how it can drive us, but with a strong father-son story at its heart.

| Mar 19, 2024

The result is less than a complete success—its world-building feels unoriginal, and I’d be indifferent towards the prospect of sequels—but nonetheless very handsome, accomplished, and enjoyable as a sort of mainstream magical-realist adventure.

| Mar 18, 2024

"The Animal Kingdom" is more of an old-school message movie than a standard horror film (despite the occasional character with a head like a tumor).

| Mar 18, 2024

In a familiar allegory for acceptance, The Animal Kingdom makes its point a little too slowly but includes great visuals and solid performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 18, 2024

The Animal Kingdom centers on human emotion amid a fantastical premise that’s otherwise presented with the same kind of stark indifference as Mother Nature herself.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 18, 2024

The film takes its X-Men-style message of the superpowered being discriminated against, and treats it with the sincerity of any fledgling indie coming-of-age movie.

| Mar 17, 2024

The movie is effective in its ability to make us emphasize for the hunted “others” as well as observe how humanity becomes the very thing it fears: monstrous in its attempt to restore law and order.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 16, 2024

This precariously established environment of mutations puts director Thomas Cailley’s film closer to the disturbing pages of H. G. Wells than some uncanny Marvel comic adventure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 15, 2024

A light but meaty piece of magical-realism that threads the needle between Cronenbergian body horror and Miyazaki-like fantasy...

| Original Score: B | Mar 15, 2024