Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun join the filmmaker in the ensemble of a pulpy Netflix outing that is most interesting when it's most cynical.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection It’s for the best that “Animals,” actor Ben Affleck‘s sixth outing behind the camera, is being released directly to Netflix — not that this slick, pacy serving of all-star pulp couldn’t or wouldn’t hold one’s attention in the multiplex. But ever since Affleck’s rousing, enjoyable political drama “Argo” won a Best Picture Oscar that it perhaps didn’t entirely need, his subsequent efforts have been burdened with the weighty expectations of a prestige filmmaker — the noirish, overbaked flop “Live by Night” certainly didn’t benefit from those, and while the fleet-footed crowdpleaser “Air” rallied nicely, it wasn’t a major work either. Affleck is, at heart, an audience-minded journeyman: Screwy and silly when it doesn’t sporadically hit you with a stray hard truth, “Animals” is disposable pulp, but it benefits from its director-star’s unassuming professionalism.
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