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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Animal Factory, The
EMAILPRINTSilver Nitrate Releasing
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Edward Bunker (also novel)
John Steppling
Directed by: Steve Buscemi
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 13, 2000
DVD: January 9, 2001
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong language, violence and drug use
Starring Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke, Steve Buscemi, and Tom Arnold
Based on the eponymous novel by one-time San Quentin inmate Edward Bunker, Animal Factory portrays the manufacture of a hardened criminal out of the middle-class clay of a newly imprisoned and once promising young man. (Silver Nitrate Releasing)
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice Amy Taubin
Tender, poignant, and homoerotically charged, this complicated father-son relationship is brought to life by two brilliant actors and a director who's canny enough to give them all the room they need.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour
One of the least sensationalistic--and therefore, more unsettlingly plausible--visions of prison life ever transfigured into big-screen drama.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
A genre-busting film that deserves to be seen.
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
A wonderfully acted, strangely low-key prison movie.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Buscemi's directing blends hard-hitting visual qualities with great emotional energy.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Willem Dafoe steals the picture with his comic timing.
Read Full Review >Film.com Ernest Hardy
It's a guy's film that doesn't just revel in testosterone, though -- it has a more purposeful agenda.
Read Full Review >Variety Staff (not credited)
In one of his best leading screen turns, Dafoe makes a potentially unlikely construct into a fascinating, full-blooded figure.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
There's something surprisingly sweet at the center of this grim prison drama.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
What enrich the film are its layers of detail -- moronic racial protocols, turf wars, pecking orders, men as livestock -- the authenticity of the dialogue and the rich range of characters.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
You come away with the sense that you should have come to care (or at least to know) more about its central characters than you do.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
(Rourke's) nearly unrecognizable presence is characteristic of the odd pockets of talent (and, sometimes, lint) in Steve Buscemi's film.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a 6:
You haven't lived 'til you've seen Mickey O'Rourke as a transvestite, who looks more like a full-faced Harvey Feinstein than himself. There's also a musical act (a fey singer backed by an accordion and violin) that would be more at home at a small Greenwich Village club than the prison cafeteria. While these are fresh images you can add to the cinematic catalog of penitentary iconography, it doesn't help us forge a bond with Ron (Edward Furlong) because this prison doesn't seem all that scary. Ron is busted for distribution of marijuana, which is an outrage to those who believe that pot is a soft drug, so it would make dramatic sense had he been put through more ordeals to siphon out his good will, and replace this chasm with malice. He does, but Earl (Williem Dafoe) does such a good job of acclimating Ron to prison life, we don't quite buy his transformation from passive naif to hot-head vigilante. Ron's brush with sodomy isn't preceeded by any indication that he's one flashpoint away from protracting his sentence through moral aggravation. This evolution doesn't feel organic, but it's there to set up Earl and Ron's plan to escape from prison...and comparisons to "The Shawshank Redemption".
