Justin Torres chose to open his debut novel We the Animals with a short, definitive statement: “We wanted more.” Those who’ve read the book won’t say anything close to that after seeing the film. Like the bildungsroman that it’s based on, the movie adaptation explores a young man’s journey into himself and away from the entity of brotherhood. A tender and raw look at machismo, race, sexuality, and the complications of a working-class family, the story—which as Torres describes, “is but isn’t” his—will feel familiar to many. Both the book and the film, an auto-fiction of sorts, pull from the author’s personal experience, including the discovery of his queerness via journaling, which led to his parents placing him in a psych ward.
We the Animals premiered in January at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and was the only competition film shot on a 16-millimeter—a detail that makes the images feel raw. There’s a scene set in the back of a newly minted pick-up truck that’s far too small for a family of five and which leads to an argument between the parents. In this moment, the three brothers—Jonah (Evan Rosado), Joel (Josiah Gabriel), and Manny (Isaiah Kristian)—use their fists to create a beat against the vehicle’s rear and let their arms hang free from the edge. It’s one of the many muted moments in the script that opts for emotion over dialogue.
The movie, set in Utica, New York, is the kind of coming-of-age story that stands out from the rest because it dares to be vulnerable. The author’s attention to detail is evident in the book, where there’s level of bluntness and honesty that can only come from a child. With seemingly everything against his favor, Jonah learns the ways life can make you hurt, but also love.
Prior to We the Animals, the three young stars of the film weren’t professional actors. Director Jeremiah Zagar pulled Rosado—the youngest of the three—from a Puerto Rican Day parade crowd in Brooklyn. Raúl Castillo plays Paps, the Puerto Rican father whose violent, machista ways are the root of almost all the familial arguments. And Sheila Vand plays Ma, a sweet yet ferocious Irish-Italian mom who loves from a place of lack.