Body heat body heat body heat

Next Day Update: It's honesty/resonance and disconformity became clearer when thinking about it while listening to Joyner Lucas' ISIS the next day; especially where supporting characters are concerned. Still a little too romantic about the central character's likeness to reach the heights of Precious or Moonlight or Bests Of No Nation, but closer to that than to wokepleasers like Get Out, Parasite or Knives Out. Original Review: Pretty good, but I'd be surprised if it sticks with me long. Perhaps because it's little too convenniently in-vogue abd articised to a point of disconect.

Beautiful imagery, good acting, but very depressing. The only hopeful part was the child flying away.

Wow. Honestly so beautiful and accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. The last ten (or five?) minutes evoked a lot of emotion from me, and of course the movie is very pretty visually. Does a great job conveying brotherhood and childhood, as well as the difficulties impoverished people face, all through the convincing lens of a child. Gorgeous film.

Poetic, beautiful and heartfelt. We the Animals is a sublime, hypnotic and coming of age story about brotherhood, love and finding yourself in the world. Every shot looks like an oil painting. Camera and sound are used expressively and powerfully like any director with a very specific sense of vision would use.

I absolutely love this movie. It is beautiful and tells a necessary and realistic tale of childhood. It's characters feel completely human, and you can understand how each of them got to where they are without agreeing with them. In many ways it reminds me of Moonlight, and just like it We the Animals is a film that everyone should see.

Beautiful film, that would have made a wonderful short film that is stretched to feature length. Coming of age drama about a boy finding himself that is a little too much like 'Moonlight'. Documentarian Jeremiah Zagar's first scripted feature and i use the word script loosely. There's not much meat on the bone. Not my cup of tea! Final Score: 5.1/10

A poignant and poetic evocation of childhood A remarkably contained and intimate story featuring only five main cast members, We the Animals is about a young boy awakening to his homosexuality. Equal parts lyricism and grittiness, the film looks at how the crystallising of one's perception of the world goes hand-in-hand with a loss of innocence. Less concerned with narrative beats and character arcs than with tone and visual poetry, the film operates in a similar magical realist key as Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), whilst also calling to mind the Texas scenes of The Tree of Life (2011). And although the narrative could be accused of being a little insubstantial, this is an effective and poignant evocation of childhood. Set in upstate New York in the 1990s, the film tells the story of nine-year-old Jonah (Evan Rosado), who lives with his Ma (Sheila Vand) and Paps (Raúl Castillo), and two slightly older brothers, Manny (Isaiah Kristian) and Joel (Josiah Gabriel). Existing just above the poverty line, the family is tightly-knit but dysfunctional, with Ma and Paps both prone to lashing out violently. When a neighbouring boy shows the brothers a porn movie, Jonah is taken aback when he reacts so strongly to a brief clip of two men having sex. We the Animals is the fiction debut of Jeremiah Zagar, and was written for the screen by Zagar and Daniel Kitrosser, from Justin Torres's semi-autobiographical 2011 novel. Much like the novel, rather than presenting a classically structured plot, the film is instead composed of vignettes presented in a broadly chronological manner. Essentially a bildungsroman, the film covers some of the same thematic ground as Moonlight (2016), albeit it with a more esoteric tone. In a similar manner, although its depiction of the brothers' mischief recalls The Florida Project (2017), We the Animals is far more lyrical. Initially the trio are presented as relatively indistinguishable from one another, but this begins to change as Jonah's self-awareness grows and he begins to withdraw from his siblings. At the same time, the voiceover narration becomes less frequent. Tied into this are the crayon pictures which he draws which change from innocent doodling to sexualised and violent images. Also important is how well Zagar uses the mise en scène to suggest psychology; as the film progresses, we see less of Jonah huddled under the bed covers with his brothers, and more of him alone under his bed. Zagar's documentarian background is also noticeable in his use of the techniques of cinéma vérité. In terms of focalisation, the film is tied rigidly to Jonah's perspective. In a general sense, this can be seen in the frequency with which cinematographer Zak Mulligan places the camera at Jonah's eye level. A more specific example involves a scene when Paps is arguing with another man off-camera; we can hear the voices, but not clearly, because neither can Jonah. Also important is that the film is shot on grainy Super 16, predominately with wide lenses and a shallow depth of field, robbing the image of sheen and depth, and thus foregrounding the impreciseness of memory, as if we are looking at events through gauze, half-remembered and half-embellished, as if there is no distinction between past and present, which reminded me a little of Mirror (1975) and Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988). Thematically, although the film deals with domestic violence, Paps isn't the only one guilty of such behaviour; Ma is also shown as possessing a violent temper. Some of the dialogue also carries darker implications. For example, Ma tells Jonah that when children are 10, they leave their parents, asking him, "promise me you'll stay mine forever." When he asks how, she says, "you're not 10, you're 9+1". There's a beauty to this sentiment, but so too is there something unhealthy about it. In terms of problems, for all its lyricism, the film never really says anything new, and it suffers in comparison to masterworks such as Tree of Life and Beasts of the Southern Wild. Another issue is that there is a sense that Zagar is more interested in lyricism than emotion; in trying to convey Jonah's interiority through abstract visual poetry, he neglects the issue of emotional realism. This should be a heartbreaking film, but it isn't, mainly because the characters exist primarily to facilitate philosophical musing, rather than as unique entities in themselves. That aside, however, We the Animals is an impressive debut. Very much focused on the impressionistic and chaotic nature of memory, it depicts a young life yet to be fully formed, with its inconclusive ending reminding us that life doesn't have a three-act structure. And this might be the film's crowning achievement; in a story about the past and how we access it, the final impression with which it leaves us is that we can never know what lies in our future.

A terribly sad but gripping drama about the truths of three boys’ childhood. We The Animals will keep your attention from start to finish. An absolute must-watch film.

We the Animals is a MASTERPIECE. A fine piece of camera work, directing choices and acting at its best. Storytelling mastered.

This sucks balls. An hour and a half of nothingness. Random scenes that could be played out for deeper meaning then dropped completely. Like paging through a strangers family album. Without back story the pictures are meaningless

Zagarâ(TM)s directorial debut announces him as a filmmaker of tremendous potential. In turns dreamy and tough, this adaptation boasts Castilloâ(TM)s charismatic and deeply felt performance. This will be remembered as one of the most surprising and best films of 2019.

This film tries really hard to be artsy but i just found it to be really boring.

I actually debated between a 3* and 3.5* for this one and clearly didn't get out of it what many others appeared to. I had read the Torres source material so knew where we were headed and am not sure if that is why this didn't have the impact on me that it did on others. Still a solid film but I will actually look to watch this again when I am in a different state of mind.

Boring. Typical independent film with long glances, little dialog and nothing happening.

The movie is stunning and dreamy, no questions about it. The heart is in its right place and it feel authentic too. My only fear is that "We are Animals" won't stay with me for very long and that is because, despite being full of very deep and interesting themes, the film taste all of them without never choosing one. As opposed to, for instance, "Estiu 1993" or "The Florida Project", two films this productions brought to my mind and two films worth to be remembered.

Overall is a good film. A coming of age with an authentic feel to it. The acting has it's stellar moments, and there are some onion-cutting themes throughout. The children actors do a great job portraying their characters, which can be a hard thing to find at their age. The illustrative montages throughout bring poetry to their ordinary lives and what some might see as artsy-fartsy is a thing that children actually do to combat the doldrums of ordinary life. Will be checking out more from this director for sure.

Zagar's exploring drama about the right and wrong thrives on surprisingly being diplomatic and complicated to the core. We The Animals Zagar's exploring drama about the right and wrong thrives on surprisingly being diplomatic and complicated to the core. As much as simple and linear the narration is, its sensibility to be fair, and not feeling obliged to be self-righteous, is what marks this tale in a map. One of the primary strength of the feature is the relationship and equations of the characters. It is balanced. If a husband hits his wife, then so does she. It is not a perfect relationship. And that is what makes it more human. The apt depiction of the current society that we live in is put upfront on the screen which also makes it inedible to watch at times. The fatal attempts of going towards the storyline is a classic textbook procedure that is adapted in here. The execution is genuinely effective and the work done by the maker foliates it onto the screen with bright colors. Speaking of which, the animation is an essential part of the tale. It speaks a lot that cannot be either shown or acted out. And amidst all the structure of the script, the voids are filled in by the clips of children playing on a field or river or forests. These little tactics of how they run their households on and how they feed themselves is well researched by the team and brilliantly installed in the narration. In fact, such bits often reminds you of Malick's masterpiece "The Tree Of Life". Aforementioned, the ongoing thoughts of a child like such, that is exploring newer things with the most one dimensional simple thinking, ought to be hard for the writers to write, and it is handled marvelously in here. Ticking for around ninety minutes, the storytelling could have been edited out but considering the time it takes to chew its content and the additional inputs to justify each action, is done with so ingenuity, that in the end it pays off. With jaw dropping visuals, stunning live locations, caressing the nature with the lens and metaphorical cinematography, this visual galore is a delight to watch. And having said that, it doesn't suggest that it is always easy to watch this family grow. The storyline does wander off into places that scares you with its harrowing innuendos that makes your heart skip a bit. And to make you feel that, Zagar takes you with its lead characters to an emotional journey that fluctuates and depicts all of its sides. The performance by the cast is convincing throughout the course of the feature especially the younger cast that are equally challenging to the elder ones. Personally I prefer it when the characters in here realizes the fundamental concept and are about to take bold decisions against all odds rather than exploring their options. For actually, whilst writing such an "easy" part of the storytelling, often or not, the writers gets distracted and either misses or skips a few beat or over chews its substance. We The Animals is not groundbreaking on concept, structure or narration, what it gets right is conveying a good old message with a good old tale.

2/3/2019 I think this was so caught up in being artsy that whatever message it was trying to convey was jeopardised as being half-baked. Exceptional cinematography nevertheless.

One of this year's most tender films, "We the Animals," is a sentimental portrait of the queer youth experience. Like similar recent films focused on children, "The Florida Project," "Moonlight" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild," it has the power to do more than just entertain. It can transport us to a world we do not know. Perhaps, a place where we can learn, grow and, most important, listen to an experience different from our own.   Adapted from Justin Torres's autobiographical novel of the same name, the film moves with poetic rhythm. Drums thump. Fingers tap. Fists bang. Hearts beat. A living pulse serves as an undercurrent for this bildungsroman. "We the Animals" opens with three Puerto Rican boys moving in raucous, tyrannical tandem. Screaming, shouting and running around their house in the upstate New York countryside, they have a camaraderie that transcends brotherhood. "Body heat. Body heat. Body heat," they chant with faces lit up by flashlights under a blanket. Yet Jonah (Evan Rosada) our protagonist, stands out among the trio. As his older brothers sleep sprawled out on their shared bed, Jonah hides underneath, coloring in his notebooks. In his mind exists another world, all his own. A world he escapes to. Although Jonah moves in sync with his brothers, he is at the same time different. Younger. Quieter. More sensitive and observant-gay. His otherness pronounces itself as we watch him observe the world around him, especially his parents' marriage. Jonah's growing isolation is the crux of the film. Ma and Paps (Sheila Van and Raul Castillo) present a complicated, messy relationship, marked by passion. At a moment's notice we can see it shift from affectionate to angry and abusive. Paps, in a bathrobe holding a beer, bangs his spatula on the stove along to Latin music playing over the radio. The boys with morning eyes look on curiously. He encourages them to dance with him. "Dance like you're rich!" The boys stick out their pinky fingers and turn up their noses while continuing their merengue steps. "Now like you're white!" Their loose movement becomes rigid. "Shake it like you're Puerto Rican!" The boys exude their father's confidence, returning to their rhythmic steps. Paps dances sensually with their mother who emerges from the bedroom. Jonah looks on, and we watch him process masculinity. He doesn't relate to his father's machismo in the same way as his brothers. Many scenes are not as sweet. Jonah is increasingly an outsider within the family. Anger builds as he watches his parents' volatile relationship grow more and more physically aggressive. He tentatively discovers his attraction towards an older neighbor boy. His isolation is deafening, with drawing being his only outlet. On screen, Jonah's drawings become animations that bring us into his isolated world. Visually, they serve as full-screen transitions bridging one scene to the next. Coupled with Jonah's narration, they let us watch him process his surroundings and come of age. The animations, although unique and generally well executed, can at times feel like an abrupt departure from the otherwise aesthetically cohesive film. The director Jeremiah Zagar-who has a background in documentary filmmaking-gives the movie a warm naturalism. The cinematographer's handheld, shaky-camera approach brings with it the intimacy of a home movie. The late-summer color palette accentuates this feeling. Zagar was responsible for bringing the cast together in one small house to live on location in Utica, N.Y. to prepare for filming. Working with three first-time child actors, he emphasized play in order to build chemistry. The relationships on screen hold the film together. The movie is at its best when it lets these relationships sing within its non-linear storyline. The vignettes, loosely woven together, function like memories. And with memory, the good, the bad and the ugly come together to form Jonah's evolving identity.