Animals (Sophie Hyde, 2019) wr. Emma Jane Unsworth, from her novel; prod. Rebecca Summerton, Sophie Hyde, Sarah Brocklehurst; Holliday Grainger, Alia Shawkat, Fra Fee, Dermot Murphy, Amy Molloy; dramedy; Adelaide FF 5Apr, Sydney FF 8Jun; released 12Sept
After a decade of partying, Laura and Tyler's friendship is strained when Laura falls in love. But what is really stopping her from fulfilling her dreams?
Adapted by Emma Jane Unsworth from her own 2014 novel, Sophie Hyde’s generous, freewheeling film is a pleasingly disorderly addition to the still-underpopulated ranks of female friendship studies — eschewing both strict moral judgment and greeting-card sentimentality in its portrayal of two women with a firmer idea of what they don’t want in life than what they do. Played with fizzing yin-and-yang chemistry by Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat, they’re a welcome corrective to the more superficially subversive female leads of comedies like Trainwreck, whose external damage mask surprisingly conservative aspirations; heterosexual romance is an option, not a destination, in a film that sees the wine glass as half-full and half-empty by turns. Guy Lodge, Variety.
Garry Gillard | New: 21 November, 2019 | Now: 21 November, 2019