When I saw that Alia Shawkat was one of the leads in Animals then I knew I had to watch it as soon as possible. It turns out that Holliday Grainger is an equally good lead performer, which made this even more enjoyable than I expected it to be.
Based on the novel by Emma Jane Unsworth, Animals is the tale of two close friends who seem to spend their time drinking, amusing one another, and keeping a distance from others they can then safely mock without pangs of painful self-awareness. Shawkat is Tyler, a superb and fierce force to be reckoned with. Normality and social norms are obstacles to be faced and overcome. Grainger is Laura, a writer who seems to be stuck on the actual writing part. She takes many notes, but hasn't put anything down that even comes close to resembling the start of her debut novel. Things start to change when Laura meets Jim (Fra Fee), a pianist who is happy to live a fairly normal life in between his times impressing people with his piano-playing prowess.
Having only seen one other film directed by Sophie Hyde (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande), and nothing else yet written by Unsworth, I was drawn to this by the cast alone. They are fantastic, but there's an energy and truth to the writing that makes me keen to try other material written by Unsworth. She may still need a good enough cast to help get everything successfully from page to screen, but the characters and observations are so well-crafted here that I wanted to spend more time exploring them all. I hope I can find similar satisfaction in other Unsworth projects.
Aside from Shawkat and Grainger, because I think I've made my views on their acting skills quite clear already, there's a solid turn from Fee as the pianist who forces one of the main characters to start re-evaluating and reframing their approach to life. Dermot Murphy also does a good job portraying Marty, a poet who somehow lives his authentic life without any of the self-doubt or guilt that Laura has, reflecting her own faultlines and insecurities back at her as she finds herself at an unexpected crossroads in her life.
Not only does Animals look at the struggle of those wanting to spend their lives being creative artists, it also highlights the chasm that exists between the self-belief of men and women, with the former generally benefiting from a history of not being told that they should give up on their dreams to settle down, marry, and have children. The main characters here might seem selfish and irritating at times, but being selfish and irritating is sometimes what it takes to do whatever your real passion is. And women get far fewer opportunities to try taking that demanding journey than men. That might not be the point of Animals, especially when one scene has characters actually discussing the priorities that animals need in their lives, but I suspect that it's definitely one of the main ingredients helping to make the final dish what it is.
8/10
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