‘Animals’ Review: Affleck’s Return To Thriller Filmmaking Is Thrilling But Not Interesting

I’m a huge fan of Ben Affleck, both in terms of his acting filmography, his small collection of directed films, and his work on Good Will Hunting as a writer. I was always going to watch Animals, both in professional sense and as a fan of Affleck, though Netflix’s obvious lack of marketing of the film was a little confusing, given Affleck’s prestige as an actor, writer, and director. Now Animals is here, and it’s about what I expected.

Animals follows Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball as his son is kidnapped during vital days of his mayoral campaign, and must work with his wife Abigail (Kerry Washington), advisor Sam (Steven Yeun) and mysterious fixer Bradford (Gillian Anderson). Read the synopsis for the film below:

In Animals, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball (Ben Affleck) faces those very questions. When he receives an ominous phone call, Mark and his wife Abigail (Kerry Washington) scramble to respond to a threat that could upend their carefully constructed life.

Animals is a pretty run-of-the-mill political thriller, and surprisingly has a lot more talking than other films in its genre. The most action-packed the film gets is a three-minute sequence in the finale. On its own, this isn’t a criticism, though in addition to the biggest sin of the film, it certainly doesn’t sweeten the deal. What’s the biggest sin? The fact that we’ve seen all of those before. The film doesn’t reinvent the genre, nor does it need to, but it fails to feel fresh, or even remotely interesting as the film is pretty open and close. You don’t even get to find out the identity of those who commit the crime. The film doesn’t feel concerned with it, though its just another factor that removes any level of intrigue to the movie.

Affleck and Washington are allowed the most screen time and most material to work with, with the script only really fleshing out those main characters. Steven Yeun’s character feels prominent in how he’s placed within the story, but ultimately is allowed to do very little. The same goes for Anderson’s character, who (alongside Yeun) feels like, in another cut, they might be the kidnappers working against the Kimball family. Alas, that is not the case, and these characters are as flat as a pancake, feeling like an inadvertent red herring.

A poor script can be saved by good direction, though, and Ben Affleck proves he is still a master behind the camera. Some great uses of perspective can be seen throughout, and one particular shot involving a chair really impressed me. Better material would do the man justice, even with his work on the script.

Animals works best as easy entertainment, with quick thrills, a sensible plot, and solid acting, but so are many other films. It lacks the complexity to be great, and lacks deeper thematic intention (or effective portrayal of said intention), and will struggle to stand out amongst Affleck’s filmography and the ever continuing canon of Netflix crime thrillers. Even The Rip, the other Artists Equity Netflix crime thriller that released this year, felt like it had more to say and more to give for the average audience, which for a filmmaker as strong and prestigious as Affleck, is disappointing.

Animals is directed by Ben Affleck and stars Affleck, Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Christopher Woodley, and Mark Kassen. The film is produced by Affleck and Matt Damon for Artists Equity. Watch it below:

Thanks for reading this Animals review. For more, stay tuned here at Feature First.