This coming-of-age story about three brothers growing up in backwoods America features some hard knocks but risks prettifying poverty
Working in the highly-charged style of Terrence Malick, documentary film-maker Jeremiah Zagar makes his feature debut with this poetic, sensual coming-of-age movie about growing up dirt poor in rural America. Painfully chronicling the lives of three brothers over the course of a year or so as they amass scars they will carry into adulthood, this film is filled with golden sunsets that give scenes the fairytale quality of childhood memories. It is a thing of beauty: too beautiful perhaps, running a real danger of prettifying poverty.
The setting is the mostly white world of upstate New York, all rusted trailers and junked cars on front lawns. The film’s narrator is sensitive, observant 10-year-old Jonah (first time actor Evan Rosado is astoundingly good). He’s the youngest of a trio of semi-feral brothers,...
Working in the highly-charged style of Terrence Malick, documentary film-maker Jeremiah Zagar makes his feature debut with this poetic, sensual coming-of-age movie about growing up dirt poor in rural America. Painfully chronicling the lives of three brothers over the course of a year or so as they amass scars they will carry into adulthood, this film is filled with golden sunsets that give scenes the fairytale quality of childhood memories. It is a thing of beauty: too beautiful perhaps, running a real danger of prettifying poverty.
The setting is the mostly white world of upstate New York, all rusted trailers and junked cars on front lawns. The film’s narrator is sensitive, observant 10-year-old Jonah (first time actor Evan Rosado is astoundingly good). He’s the youngest of a trio of semi-feral brothers,...
- 6/13/2019
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Some actors hit their stride right out of the gate, but Raúl Castillo’s progress has been a slow burn. The 41-year-old Texas-born New Yorker spent years honing his craft in off-Broadway productions before making his way into low-budget film productions a little over a decade ago. It wasn’t until he scored the role of Richie Donado Ventura on HBO’s Lgbt drama series “Looking” that Castillo became a known quantity. Three years after that show, he’s finally settling into his groove as a respected movie actor.
“It took me a long time to get things going in this career,” he said, “but once it started to happen, it became a series of interesting projects with people I respect.”
Most recently, he scored an Independent Spirit Award for best supporting actor in “We the Animals,” as the passionate but flawed patriarch of a biracial home. Having survived...
“It took me a long time to get things going in this career,” he said, “but once it started to happen, it became a series of interesting projects with people I respect.”
Most recently, he scored an Independent Spirit Award for best supporting actor in “We the Animals,” as the passionate but flawed patriarch of a biracial home. Having survived...
- 1/2/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Without hesitation, director Jeremiah Zagar explains the delicate process of dramatizing a ten-year-old’s queer sexual awakening: it’s a combination of non-exploitative material (adapted from Justin Torres’ novel We the Animals) and collaboration with the parents of child actors. The queer storyline is so integrated with the film’s other important elements that some critics relegate Jonah’s (Evan Rosado) awakening to subtext. But Torres was adamant that, with his adaptation, Zagar make queerness the hermeneutic through which Jonah would see and interpret his world in upstate New York.
We spoke with Zagar about We the Animals, the economic struggles leading to Paps (Raúl Castillo) and Ma’s (Sheila Vand) physical and emotional abuse, the film being greenlit based on casting first-time performer Evan Rosado, and collaborating with the parents of child actors to bring this young, explosive family to the screen.
Will you talk about the baby boy used for Jonah’s birth?...
We spoke with Zagar about We the Animals, the economic struggles leading to Paps (Raúl Castillo) and Ma’s (Sheila Vand) physical and emotional abuse, the film being greenlit based on casting first-time performer Evan Rosado, and collaborating with the parents of child actors to bring this young, explosive family to the screen.
Will you talk about the baby boy used for Jonah’s birth?...
- 8/19/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Words matter. This week, the United States President called a woman a “dog,” reducing her to something contemptible and sub-human. Meanwhile, in the country’s most fortunate art houses, meticulously scripted, micro-budgeted Sundance discovery “We the Animals” flips such language on its head, deploying the word “animals” not as an epithet, but a mark of uncommon empowerment as it celebrates the complicated identity of three biracial kids — brothers Manny, Joel, and Jonah — who may as well be a single alien organism: inseparable Siamese triplets fused at the hips, or some kind of rare 12-legged octopus.
Clumsy like puppies, giggly like hyenas, these three half-white, half-Puerto Rican boys seize the opportunity of Jeremiah Zagar’s stunning, semi-impressionistic film to define themselves, coming off as something more than human, not less, so much so that by the end, it seems entirely reasonable that one of these special children might sprout wings and fly away.
Clumsy like puppies, giggly like hyenas, these three half-white, half-Puerto Rican boys seize the opportunity of Jeremiah Zagar’s stunning, semi-impressionistic film to define themselves, coming off as something more than human, not less, so much so that by the end, it seems entirely reasonable that one of these special children might sprout wings and fly away.
- 8/17/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Justin Torres’ autobiographical debut novel “We the Animals” is told at first in the first person plural, and this film adaptation directed by Jeremiah Zagar uses this conceit for its narration.
“Look at us,” says our young narrator Jonah (Evan Rosado) on the soundtrack, as we see him playing with his two brothers. “When we were brothers, we wanted more… more volume, more muscles… us three… us kings… us brothers.” This narration gets largely abandoned as “We the Animals” goes on, which mimics what happens in Torres’s book when Jonah starts to separate himself from his brothers and his parents, and refers to them as “they.”
Zagar has smartly decided to tell this very subjective story of childhood with an expressionist visual style that favors saturated colors, and he often leans on an unusually suggestive and potent sound design that sometimes leads us seamlessly from one memory to the next.
“Look at us,” says our young narrator Jonah (Evan Rosado) on the soundtrack, as we see him playing with his two brothers. “When we were brothers, we wanted more… more volume, more muscles… us three… us kings… us brothers.” This narration gets largely abandoned as “We the Animals” goes on, which mimics what happens in Torres’s book when Jonah starts to separate himself from his brothers and his parents, and refers to them as “they.”
Zagar has smartly decided to tell this very subjective story of childhood with an expressionist visual style that favors saturated colors, and he often leans on an unusually suggestive and potent sound design that sometimes leads us seamlessly from one memory to the next.
- 8/17/2018
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
by Murtada Elfadl
We the Animals has been compared to Moonlight (2016), The Tree of Life (2011) and Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). While the comparison is reductive it provides a shorthand for describing this film. It’s a story of three young brothers - one of whom is queer - and their relationships with each other and with their unpredictable parents. There are elements of magical realism in a story grounded in the economic desperation of a working class family in upstate New York.
Raul Castillo (HBO’s Looking) and Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) give perceptive performances as the adults. However it is newcomer Evan Rosado, playing the central character of Jonah, who’ll take your breath away. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world in the secret journals in which writes and sketches. It is an assured narrative...
We the Animals has been compared to Moonlight (2016), The Tree of Life (2011) and Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). While the comparison is reductive it provides a shorthand for describing this film. It’s a story of three young brothers - one of whom is queer - and their relationships with each other and with their unpredictable parents. There are elements of magical realism in a story grounded in the economic desperation of a working class family in upstate New York.
Raul Castillo (HBO’s Looking) and Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) give perceptive performances as the adults. However it is newcomer Evan Rosado, playing the central character of Jonah, who’ll take your breath away. More sensitive and conscious than his older siblings, Jonah increasingly embraces an imagined world in the secret journals in which writes and sketches. It is an assured narrative...
- 8/17/2018
- by Murtada Elfadl
- FilmExperience
The boys and their father are slumped in the back of a dying pickup truck. Minutes earlier, dad lost his job, in part because he brought the boys with him to his overnight security gig; the boss showed up, an altercation took place before the trio’s eyes, and now the truck is being towed. An eventful night, and as the father’s face makes clear, a rather devastating one. Losing the job is a crushing blow, one made all the more upsetting by happening in front of his children. He struggles to keep from crying as the boys look on, and the tow truck rumbles in the morning light. The youngest boy’s face responds to his father’s sadness, while the older two feed off of his anger. When dad slaps the side of the truck, all three follow suit. They bang and bang, the youngest shouting, “No more work!
- 8/14/2018
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
The Orchard has released the first trailer for their Sundance hit We the Animals, and by the looks of it, it seems the high praise the film received out of the festival was nothing short of deserving. Esteemed for its visceral nature and profound storytelling, We the Animals centers on Jonah (played by newcomer Evan Rosado), the youngest of three boys, and his young development through the socialization of his older brothers Manny and Joel, and his erratic parents (played by Sheila Vand and Raúl Castillo).
The debut trailer showcases the stylish strength of the film, displaying melodic cinematography from Zak Mulligan. Taking select visual inspirations from Terrence Malick’s book of tricks, Jeremiah Zagar directs We the Animals from his and Daniel Kitrosser’s screenplay based off Justin Torres’ 2011 novel of the same title.
See the trailer and poster below.
Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable. Three boys tear through their childhood,...
The debut trailer showcases the stylish strength of the film, displaying melodic cinematography from Zak Mulligan. Taking select visual inspirations from Terrence Malick’s book of tricks, Jeremiah Zagar directs We the Animals from his and Daniel Kitrosser’s screenplay based off Justin Torres’ 2011 novel of the same title.
See the trailer and poster below.
Us three. Us brothers. Us kings, inseparable. Three boys tear through their childhood,...
- 7/1/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
"Promise me you'll stay nine forever." The Orchard has debuted the first official trailer for an indie film titled We the Animals, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year, won the Next Innovator Award, and earned a whole bunch of acclaim and rave reviews from critics all over the world. The film sort of reminds me of Beasts of the Southern Wild, about a group of young kids who create their own worlds and live in poor conditions with their parents. The film stars Sheila Vand and Raúl Castillo as the parents, and the story focuses on one specific young boy named Jonah. He also has two other brothers, Manny and Joel, and the three of them are played by Evan Rosado, Josiah Gabriel, and Isaiah Kristian. This is an outstanding trailer for a really wonderful, special film about these kids and how they survive in tough times,...
- 6/29/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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...
“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...
- 6/28/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
‘We are focusing our resources on continuing to bring to market independent American films of the highest quality.’
The Exchange CEO Brian O’Shea announced on Thursday (March 22) the company has acquired international rights to Sundance hits We The Animals and Blaze and will launch sales in Cannes.
Jeremiah Zagar directed We The Animals, which Cinereach and Public Record produced and will screen at the Tribeca Film Festival next month following its world premiere in Park City in January, where it won the Next Innovator Award.
Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand, Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian, and Josiah Gabriel star in the...
The Exchange CEO Brian O’Shea announced on Thursday (March 22) the company has acquired international rights to Sundance hits We The Animals and Blaze and will launch sales in Cannes.
Jeremiah Zagar directed We The Animals, which Cinereach and Public Record produced and will screen at the Tribeca Film Festival next month following its world premiere in Park City in January, where it won the Next Innovator Award.
Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand, Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian, and Josiah Gabriel star in the...
- 3/22/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Cinereach financed Next selection and produced with Public Record.
The Orchard has acquired North American rights to We The Animals following its recent world premiere in Sundance where it won the Next Innovator Award.
The distributor plans a theatrical release this year on Jeremiah Zagar’s coming-of-age film about three boys growing up in rural New York.
Zagar and Dan Kitrosser adapted the script from Justin Torres’ debut novel for the same name. The cast of newcomers includes Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian and Josiah Gabriel, in addition to Raúl Castillo and Sheila Vand.
Cinereach financed the film and produced with Public Record.
“With We The Animals, Jeremiah has masterfully created a dream-like backdrop for a story of personal identity and family,” Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s executive vice-president for film and TV, said. “It is a captivating, magnetic film that deserves to be seen in theaters and we are proud to be a part of making that happen...
The Orchard has acquired North American rights to We The Animals following its recent world premiere in Sundance where it won the Next Innovator Award.
The distributor plans a theatrical release this year on Jeremiah Zagar’s coming-of-age film about three boys growing up in rural New York.
Zagar and Dan Kitrosser adapted the script from Justin Torres’ debut novel for the same name. The cast of newcomers includes Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian and Josiah Gabriel, in addition to Raúl Castillo and Sheila Vand.
Cinereach financed the film and produced with Public Record.
“With We The Animals, Jeremiah has masterfully created a dream-like backdrop for a story of personal identity and family,” Paul Davidson, The Orchard’s executive vice-president for film and TV, said. “It is a captivating, magnetic film that deserves to be seen in theaters and we are proud to be a part of making that happen...
- 1/31/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Though Jeremiah Zagar has been directing shorts and documentaries since 2004, We The Animals marks his first feature narrative film. Adapted from Justin Torres’s novel, Animals gives a name to the source text’s unnamed narrator: Jonah (Evan Rosado), a young boy growing up in ’80s upstate NYC against the background of his parents’ unstable marriage and growing awareness of his own queerness. Editor Keiko Deguchi spoke to Filmmaker about her work on the film, which split the Next Innovator Award (chosen by a single juror, RuPaul) with Jordana Spiro’s Night Comes On. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your […]...
- 1/31/2018
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The surface plot of “We the Animals” is as simple as they come, and it’s not the source of its lyrical power. Above all else, director Jeremiah Zagar portrays the experiences of an adolescent boy coming to terms with his dysfunctional family and his emerging sexuality as a swirling cyclone of nostalgia, brutal arguments, and bittersweet pontifications. As Jonah, newcomer Evan Rosado exudes the confusing emotions of a child growing into his otherness, apart from the family unit that surrounds him. Each moment contributes to his developing perceptions of the world — telling glances and a ruminative voiceover transforms the movie into a poetic variation on the coming-of-age formula less fixated on exposition than the haunting beauty of growing up.
Read More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival
Adapted by Zagar and Dan Kitrosser from Justin Torres’ semi-biographical debut novel, “We the Animals...
Read More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival
Adapted by Zagar and Dan Kitrosser from Justin Torres’ semi-biographical debut novel, “We the Animals...
- 1/22/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
A renowned documentary filmmaker known for his Oscar-shortlisted In a Dream, Jeremiah Zagar recently embarked on his first narrative feature with We the Animals, a “translation” of Justin Torres’ critically acclaimed debut novel. The film centers on three brothers—Manny (Isaiah Kristian), Joel (Josiah Gabriel) and Jonah (newcomer Evan Rosado)—who experience a volatile home life with warring parents (portrayed by Raúl Castillo and Sheila Vand). The youngest child, Jonah…...
- 1/20/2018
- Deadline
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