Animals

This starts off quite strongly with the dynamic between "Laura" (Holliday Grainger) and "Tyler" (Alia Shawkat) tight and nippy - if largely hedonistic and alcohol fuelled. Once a love interest develops between the pair though, and the latter's sister "Jean" (Amy Molloy) deliberately gets pregnant, the body clocks start ticking and the pace of the film slows to that of a glacier as the sharpness of the first 20 minutes or so takes to it's heels. What that leaves us with is a sort of dull observational documentary on some thoughtless and selfish Dublin pseudo-intellectuals and by the conclusion I just didn't care.

‘Animals’ would have been better served had it had the guts to go as dark as the source material, instead of teetering on the edge. Gritty but not too gritty, the film fails to decide which relationship is its focus, yet it still manages to engage you enough not to truely care while voyeuristically observing this modern right of passage of identity, resilience and the hard choices we have to make. - Jess Fenton Read Jess' full article... https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-animals-hedonistic-female-friendship-and-the-art-of-growing-up Head to https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/sff for more Sydney Film Festival reviews.