(Dramatic Feature, Winner SXSW)
Bobbie and Jude are a young couple living in their broken-down car parked alongside Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Their days are a continuous ritual of theft and scoring until they must confront the difficult truth of their relationship after one of them is hospitalized.
Here’s some reviews:
- “By letting the troubles creep in, Schiffli’s accomplished first feature makes (their) conundrum both accessible and intimately unsettling at once.”- Eric Kohn, INDIEWIRE
- “The details ring true and the performances are compelling in this indie drama. Dastmalchian and Shaw are thoroughly convincing both as vividly drawn, emotionally complex individuals…”- Joe Leydon, VARIETY
- “Dastmalchian and Shaw are both dynamite, fusing into an instantaneous chemistry that’s constantly alive…. Animals is a bold and assured debut from a fresh voice, that of Collin Schiffli,”- Matt Barone, COMPLEX MAGAZINE
- “David Dastmalchian and Kim Shaw are terrific….” “A grippingly gritty and bleak film – and all the better for not puling its punches.” – Mark Adams, SCREEN DAILY
- “Grimy and sad but not sensationalistic, the debut feature is like Drugstore Cowboy drained of its hipness and sex appeal…”- John DeFore, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
- “A love story about two highly relatable, flawed characters struggling to make it work. You can’t help but root for them.”- Ashley Moreno, THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
- “…a character study that reminds me of the first time I saw Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy. And it could eventually herald the arrival of as important a talent.”- Brian Tallerico, FILM THREAT
- “A lucid, psychologically complex depiction of a path to redemption.” – Nick McCarthy, SLANT MAGAZINE
Director: Collin Schifli
Writer/Actor: David Dastmalchian
Producers: Mary Pat Bentel & Chris Smith
Editor: Amanda Griffin
Consulting Editor: Barry Poltermann
