"We the Animals" opens on a deceptively beautiful vision of a subtropical childhood paradise. Three brothers get in and out of trouble, all the while struggling with and desperately trying to escape the combustible, violence-subsumed relationship of their parents, themselves barely out of childhood when the boys were conceived.
At first Manny, Joel and Jonah have each other to fall back on, but gradually Manny and Joel evolve into woman-abusing versions of their volatile, frequently absent dad. Jonah is the special one, the gay boy who must fight the rambunctious and ultimately self-defeating heritage of his clan, who subsist on scraps of food, dreams that dissolve into nothingness, and always being one jump ahead of the law, angry shopkeepers and other righteous citizens.
"We the Animals" is beamed through Jonah's fevered imagination as the young boy joins his abused mother in dreams of escaping the men in their lives. Director Jeremiah Zagar (with co-screenwriter Daniel Kitrosser) creates a child's vision of a world filled with beauty and sheer terror.
The leads are terrific: the parents (Sheila Vand and Ra�l Castillo) and the brave Jonah (Evan Rosado) will remind any who have fallen down the rabbit hole of childhood poverty and domestic violence how hard it is to free yourself from literally all you've ever known. Zagar and his agile crew have conceived a lovely visual style whereby realistic takes of a family perpetually on the run are projected against a gay boy's journal. Jonah's story takes a tragic turn when his family discovers his erotic drawings and fevered writings. The boy suffers the fate of many queer youth, including imprisonment in a mental health institution.
As the fall film season revs up, look for acting nods for Ra�l Castillo ("Looking") as the volatile Paps, a man who frequently crosses the line between tough love and what used to be called wifebeating and child abuse, a man whose absences come to be viewed by Jonah as blessed events. Evan Rosado's Jonah also deserves consideration in the Best Supporting Actor category.