'Animals' Review
Release Date: 10/09/26 [Netflix]
Genre: Action. Crime. Drama. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Netflix.
The Verdict: A Mistake
It’s hard to imagine a director starting their career better than Ben Affleck did. The 1-2-3 punch of Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo gave him a crucial next chapter after a career on the verge of collapse, reigniting his stardom and his ability to lead projects. He hasn’t matched those heights behind the camera in the 15 years since Argo’s Best Picture win. The prohibition drama Live By Night was little seen (including by this critic), and the Nike drama Air came and went with agreeable applause but minimal overall impact.
It wasn’t known at the time, but Air’s distribution by Prime Video foreshadowed the next chapter of his filmmaking career, as, like many directors, he’s had to shift to streaming to get his movies made. Affleck and creative partner Matt Damon are fully in bed with Netflix through their Artists Equity production company. Animals is Affleck's first directorial effort from that partnership: a Los Angeles-set thriller with a ticking clock, a big cast, and massively disappointing results. If it is any indication of what is to come, Netflix may want to consider asking for a refund.
Affleck plays Mark Kimball, an independent candidate for L.A. mayor who desperately tries to close the gap with the incumbent mayor, who, despite corruption allegations, has the Latino vote in her back pocket. Mark has a lovely family when you photograph them: a beautiful wife (Kerry Washington) and their whip-smart son, Denny (Christopher Woodley). Still, things are far from perfect, as the campaign pulls him away from home and pushes his wife into another man’s arms (Ray Fisher, Affleck’s former Justice League co-star). Abigail doesn't have much to do around their giant house, with housekeeper Cecilia (Adriana Paz) doing pretty much all the dirty work.
On Halloween night, Mark gets a call from extortionists. They claim to have Denny hostage, and threaten to kill him if Mark and his campaign manager Sam (Steven Yeun) don’t produce 7 million dollars by midnight. The stakes, as upsetting as they may be, seem pretty straightforward for Mark and Abigail. But a series of events that transpire during the night, not to mention Mark’s obligations to a campaign already teetering on the edge, makes it extremely complicated. In theory, it's a story about privilege, race, class, and desperation.
The biggest problem with Animals is that it is spread so thin in so many directions, never really committing to what the audience should prioritize. It also feels like every single actor is in a different movie. Case in point: Gillian Anderson probably gives the film's best and most entertaining performance as a “fixer” who's brought in to defuse it. It’s a capital-P “Performance” from a great actress who clearly tries to find some fun in the dull void of the rest of the project, but when Affleck doesn’t rein her in, she feels wildly out of place. She honestly feels more like a character from The Accountant, another Affleck vehicle, than a genuine character in this story.
That clash doesn't make the rest of this movie plausible in any way. Animals tries to argue that people, particularly parents, will act irrationally when money and their child’s safety are on the line. It tries to make that case a few times, both with the actions of the Affleck/Washington couple and with their housekeepers. But the movie isn't nuanced enough to make that point feel relevant, so you spend the entire film questioning why everyone keeps making the stupidest decisions possible at every high-leverage moment. It doesn’t feel like emotional volatility; it feels like bad writing.
Affleck and Washington have very little chemistry, which, in some ways, works for the fractured state of their marriage. But they mostly seem like mismatched scene partners, even when they’re arguing, and it's unclear what is to blame. To be fair, it’s not just them; Animals repeats the same beats over and over to the point of tedium. It is really hard to have the great Steven Yeun in your movie and get pretty much nothing out of him.
Animals is a truly shocking misfire. Affleck’s skills as a filmmaker have been proven time and time again, so I genuinely have no idea how this happened. This movie starts with no momentum and never gathers itself, ending in a sad-trombone climax. All of this, plus Affleck’s clear embrace of AI to cut corners in production (he'd say “enhance”), makes this a deeply unfortunate experience. Netflix is probably happy with the film’s success, but you can’t tell me this is what they signed up for when they brought him on board.
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