(2012, 94 min)
Country: Spain
Director: Marçal Forés
Studio: Artsploitation Films
Language: Spanish w/subtitles
SYNOPSIS: A Spanish teenager is forced to abandon the safety of childhood (and his walking, talking teddy bear) for the troubling world of adulthood, sexuality and responsibility in this wildly original story.
REVIEW:
Stylishly shuttling between fantasy and realism (think David Lynch meets Donnie Darko), Animals is an intoxicating blend of genre and coming-of-age film as it explores that exciting, but troubling moment when sexuality enters into a youth's world.
Marçal Forés first feature film follows Pol (Oriol Pla), a Spanish, 17-year-old student teetering between the childhood universe of imagination (as evidenced by his best friend, an opinionated, English-speaking teddy bear named Deerhoof) and the adult world of reason, responsibility and sexuality.
Attending an English-language high school, Pol abandons a platonic relationship with his girlfriend for Ikara (Augustus Prew), a mysterious and moody new boy in the school. But this movie soon proves that it is far from a simple teen romance, as Pol struggles with his developing sexual drive in his relationship with Ikara as well as his love/hate affair with the plain-speaking, drum-beating bear of his safe childhood.
With gorgeous cinematography, pulsating soundtrack and several strong supporting cast members - especially Dimitri Leonidas as Pol's needling gay friend and Martin Freeman (of "The Office" and The Hobbit) as his sympathetic teacher - Animals is a refreshingly original film.
-- Raymond Murray, TLA Video (http://www.tlavideo.com)
