See high school TV and movie icons then and now, from "Dawson's Creek" and more favorites.
Related lists from IMDb editors
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: We the Animals (2018)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Evan Rosado | ... | Jonah | |
| Raúl Castillo | ... | Paps | |
| Sheila Vand | ... | Ma | |
| Isaiah Kristian | ... | Manny | |
| Josiah Gabriel | ... | Joel | |
 |
Giovanni Pacciarelli | ... | Dustin |
|
|
Moe Isaac | ... | Dustin's Grandpa |
| Michael Pemberton | ... | Foreman | |
| Amelia Campbell | ... | Woman in Van | |
|
|
Mickey Anthony | ... | Clerk |
|
|
Tom Malley | ... | Old Man |
|
|
Terry Holland | ... | Televangelist (voice) |
Manny, Joel, and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah embraces an imagined world all on his own.
Looking for some great streaming picks? Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist.
"The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another." Quentin Crisp
This year has arguably no more impressionist yet realistic narrative than We the Animals. Based on Justin Torres' autobiographical novel, it tells of three adolescent brothers from a mixed-race couple (she white, he Puerto Rican). They survive their parents' volatile relationship by creating their own fantasy world or simply hiding from abuse.
The discursive plot allows their world to become interrelated set pieces of watching their parents work out their conflicts with director Jeremiah Zagar's assured point of view frequently from the boys'. Occasionally levitation punctuates the story in a magic realism that gives a poetic gloss to the hardscrabble journey.
Among the many lovely angles is Ma (Sheila Vand) coddling the poetic Jonah (Evan Rosado), whose gradual discovery that he's gay is subtly handled. His notes and illustrations hidden under his bed provide a punctuation for the rough world above the blankets.
Despite the family's dismal blue-collar challenges in upper New York State, the boys show a resilience to give hope to an essentially unsettled life. The artfulness of the magical realism and Jonah's writings lend a sympathetic cast to the proceedings. Zagar and co-writer Daniel Kitrosser offer a home not entirely grungy, in fact rather tidy, that suggests order can prevail.
Symbolically the water motif, with images of drowning and rainy cleansing, helps coordinate the despair and hope inherent in the story. Nick Zammuto provides just the right low-key music of sadness and kindness. In all, the film coalesces around the challenges of disadvantaged boys surviving the rain into the sun.
It's not easy.
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." e. e. cummings