It doesn’t take long for thoughts of “The Tree of Life” to start running around your brain while watching the debut trailer for Jeremiah Zagar’s “We the Animals.” The Sundance-winning drama has the kind of lyrical imagery and roving camera movements Terrence Malick fans obsess over, but where Malick went cosmic, Zagar goes viscerally intimate.
“We the Animals” is based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Justin Torres. Newcomer Evan Rosado plays Jonah, the youngest son of a family living in upstate New York. Jonah’s worldview is shaped by his relationships with his two brothers, Manny and Joel, and his parents: his sensitive mother (Sheila Vand) and his overconfident father (Raúl Castillo). While his brothers grow into versions of their father, Jonah proves far more sensitive in coming to terms with his identity.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn praised “We the Animals” as this year’s “Moonlight” in his A- review out of Sundance. The film won the NEXT Innovator Award.
The Orchard will open the film in theaters August 17 after it plays Outfest 2018 in July as the U.S. Centerpiece gala. Watch the trailer below.
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