Director: Collin Schiffli Starring: David Dastmalchian, Kim Shaw, John Heard Writer: David Dastmalchian | 3/5 Animals Somewhere high on the list of “Most Populated Genres,” along with Disney sports movies and superheroes, is the drug addict drama. Without barely thinking, I can think of both a film and a show centered around the topic that have aired in this past month alone. John Ridley’s social drama American Crime centers around a pair of addict lovers caught in the middle of a murder investigation; and just weeks ago, we all (hopefully) saw the masterfully insightful look into the life of Kurt Cobain, one of music’s most notorious heroin addicts. Animals, the first-time feature for both director Collin Schiffli and screenwriter David Dastmalchian, runs in the same vein - no pun intended - as these other two films. This quaint portrait of two lovers, bonded by both emotion and addiction, is both winningly realistic and disappointingly unoriginal. Jude (Dastmalchian) and Bobbie (Kim Shaw) are two likeminded souls with middle class backgrounds who have somehow found themselves caught in an inescapable cycle of scams, theft, and scores. Jude is a college graduate and Bobbie is from a wealthy family. Thankfully, Schiffli and Dastmalchian skip the common storytelling tropes like flashbacks and lengthy exposition dumps. They know better. |
At a scant ninety minutes, Animals throws us into the lives of these two just as they are about to erupt. We meet Jude and Bobbie as a passing stranger might. We know nothing about them, but we soon learn their hopes, fears, routines, and feelings by simply watching them. They live in a car, sleeping in abandoned lots by night and pulling off (pretty entertaining) scams during the day. They steal CD’s, movies, and even show up at a wedding shower and jack some gifts. The only trick that feels disturbing is one in which Bobbie plays a prostitute who collects cash from naive men and dashes before she has to act. We follow her twice as she does this, and each scene is shot with uneasy tension. It’s no surprise that the dangerous and degrading nature of this plot is one of the last straws for Bobbie.
Not everything is bad for these two. Dastmalchian and Shaw have a fantastic chemistry that makes this twisted relationship seem not only authentic, but kind of sweet. Seeing Jude battle between his obvious infatuation for this woman and his crippling love affair with heroin - and vice versa for Bobbie - is one of the most tragic sights the film has to offer. Who am I kidding? It’s a tragedy that all films of this nature share, including both works I mentioned in the first paragraph.
This is where Animals falters, revealing its weaknesses. Dastmalchian and Schiffli both offer up stellar work, seeing as how they have never made a feature before, and seeing the two stars work together is a treat, but there is nothing here that distinguishes the movie from the crowd. It’s moving and worth your attention, but it is also forgettable and common.
(Available on iTunes)
Not everything is bad for these two. Dastmalchian and Shaw have a fantastic chemistry that makes this twisted relationship seem not only authentic, but kind of sweet. Seeing Jude battle between his obvious infatuation for this woman and his crippling love affair with heroin - and vice versa for Bobbie - is one of the most tragic sights the film has to offer. Who am I kidding? It’s a tragedy that all films of this nature share, including both works I mentioned in the first paragraph.
This is where Animals falters, revealing its weaknesses. Dastmalchian and Schiffli both offer up stellar work, seeing as how they have never made a feature before, and seeing the two stars work together is a treat, but there is nothing here that distinguishes the movie from the crowd. It’s moving and worth your attention, but it is also forgettable and common.
(Available on iTunes)