Animals

Donnie Darko meets Ted in Marçal Forés' surrealistic debut film Animals, which centers on Pol (Oriol Pla), a psychologically troubled high school student who shares his innermost secrets with Deerhoof, a tattered teddy bear that just happens to walk and talk—or, at least in Pol's mind. This device is used as a means of dramatizing Pol's internal conflicts--particularly regarding his sexual identity, which comes to the fore when he develops a relationship with a new student, Ikari (Augustus Prew). The often tense encounters between Pol, Ikari, and Deerhoof (at one point Pol even attempts to rid himself of what Deerhoof represents by “killing” the teddy) are portrayed amidst caustic observations from another of Pol's friends, periodic interventions from the boys' coolly rationalistic teacher (Martin Freeman), and a swirl of mysterious events, including the disappearance of a classmate, and a school party that is interrupted by a menacing figure wearing a human-sized bear costume. Animals doesn't try to make literal sense (even the abrupt changes from Catalan to English and back again seem designed to keep a viewer at sea), but it is beautifully filmed, with lush widescreen camerawork that casts a dreamlike spell over the proceedings. What it lacks in narrative coherence, it makes up for in atmospheric richness. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)