He looks like a junkie, she doesn’t; but maybe that is the point.
“Animals” seeks to humanize the struggle of a couple in the throes of addiction by depicting its two lovers as ordinary people who fell through the cracks.
They drive an Oldsmobile, they go to the zoo, and every so often they run a scam or steal CDs and buy heroin with the proceeds.
We don’t witness the days of wine and roses that preceded this condition, as Jude (David Dastmalchian) and Bobbie (Kim Shaw) are already living on the street — in the Olds, actually — and shooting up in diner bathrooms when we meet them. But they speak of their respectable middle-class backgrounds and they display enough humor to suggest they weren’t born into this grind.
Addiction dramas tend to unfold along formulaic lines, and “Animals” is not an exception. It does have grit, and feels rooted in crummy details that lend authenticity. (The film’s publicity discreetly suggests that Dastmalchian, who also wrote the screenplay, drew upon his own experiences in creating this world.)
Director Collin Schiffli takes a fittingly intimate approach — the film isn’t artful, in the way of Gus Van Sant’s superb “Drugstore Cowboy,” but Schiffli does get something haunting going in the vacant Chicago streets and the rapport of the two lead performers.
The only other notable actor is John Heard, whose kindly night watchman reminds us that his volcanic performance in “Cutter’s Way” (1981) really was a lifetime ago.
Less convincing is the movie’s attempt at paralleling the images of zoo animals with the bestial state inhabited by Jude and Bobbie during their time on the streets.
This kind of movie can boost the fortunes of little-known actors, and it should do that for Dastmalchian and Shaw. Her girl-next-door appearance suits the film’s everyday horror, and she has a great dead-eyed moment when Bobbie suggests that Jude’s best chance of stealing a woman’s purse is to threaten the unfortunate lady’s baby.
Dastmalchian, whose ghostly appearance worked well as a Joker henchman in “The Dark Knight,” is freakishly thin and ghoul-eyed; he could play a 19th-century grave robber, or maybe the Babadook.
Throughout the film he wears an expression of dazed disbelief, just a beat or two behind the action.
Whether shooting up in the Oldsmobile or mounting a staircase to score from an unfamiliar drug peddler, he looks as though he can’t understand — or remember — exactly how he got here.
“Animals” (2 1/2 stars)
This look at addiction has a lot of grit and two committed performances: David Dastmalchian (who also scripted) and Kim Shaw play two lovers whose lives have declined into a cycle of scrambling for money to support their habits and then shooting up.
Rating: Not rated; probably R for language, subject matter
Showing: Grand Illusion theater
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
