Animals review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 10.12.26
★★½ 2.5 / 5
Spoiler-free review
Animals plays like a hand-me-down of High and Low, filtered through Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest and sanded of edge. The Sunday-afternoon-on-Netflix vibe isn’t fatal, but the movie leans hard on speechifying that turns Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington into an exhausting duet—every argument, plea, and clinch left me wishing they’d stop interacting altogether. Gillian Anderson, meanwhile, is pure executive-caliber magnetism; I could watch her calmly issue directives for two hours. Steven Yeun is stranded with “stand there and be symbolic” duties. A few chewy lines surface, but the whole thing feels thinner than it thinks.
Full review — contains spoilers
Lowest to Lowerest…
Animals is like a dumbed-down version of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, which was already a dumbed-down version of Kurosawa’s High and Low. We keep working our way down.
If you’re free on a Sunday afternoon and want to watch something on Netflix, this is fine.
I was into this solely for Gillian Anderson, who’s basically the high queen of aura farming these days. There’s something soothing about watching her confidently and stylishly tell people what to do. I could happily watch a whole movie of that. Once she starts issuing instructions, I’m perfectly willing to accept that she should be in charge of everybody.
Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington and all of their dialogue are f-ing exhausting. I would not watch a television show starring these two actual real life movie stars interacting with each other. I don't want to watch them talk to each other or yell at each other or have sex with each other. I don't want any of their interaction at all.
I'm not sure why Steven Yuen is in this other than the stand around and look obvious. You have better things to do with your time Steven. Don't let them rope you into this nonsense again.
Come back and comment when the following makes sense to you…
“Is he black?” 😳😳😳
Good quotes:
“Humans are animals who tell stories.”
I wonder how many other women Ben Affleck has delivered this well-rehearsed line to through fake tears:
“I’m sorry I made you feel so alone. For what it’s worth, I really, really loved you, and I never wanted this to happen.”