X
  • 2012
  • R
  • Screen Media Films
  • 1 h 35 m
  • 2012
  • R
  • Screen Media Films
  • 1 h 35 m

Summary In this loud, irreverent comedy, Jimmy, a terminally ill young man with a penchant for waxing philosophical and sudden costume changes, finds his hedonistic world of casual sex, drinking and board games derailed when he learns that his best friend and roommate, James, has gotten a job. (Screen Media Films)

Directed By: Matt D'Elia

Written By: Matt D'Elia

  • 2012
  • R
  • Screen Media Films
  • 1 h 35 m
  • 2012
  • R
  • Screen Media Films
  • 1 h 35 m

American Animal

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
52
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary In this loud, irreverent comedy, Jimmy, a terminally ill young man with a penchant for waxing philosophical and sudden costume changes, finds his hedonistic world of casual sex, drinking and board games derailed when he learns that his best friend and roommate, James, has gotten a job. (Screen Media Films)

Directed By: Matt D'Elia

Written By: Matt D'Elia

Where to Watch

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
52
43% Positive
3 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 7 Critic Reviews
52
43% Positive
3 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
29% Negative
2 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
75
May 18, 2012
American Animal is a wildly experimental debut for D'Elia, who uses hand-held digital cameras and lots of jump cuts. It is well-acted and features witty repartee.
By V.A. Musetto FULL REVIEW
75
May 14, 2012
It may be baked with the same ingredients that come in your standard mumblecore starter kit, but because of Matt D'Elia's indebtedness to other movies, the film follows a different recipe altogether.
FULL REVIEW
70
May 15, 2012
Bizarre, off-putting, and finally demanding of rubberneck respect, this fish-tank indie never leaves a rather lovely duplex apartment, occupied by an unemployed Everyman (Brendan Fletcher) and his roommate, Jimmy (director Matt D'Elia).
By Michael Atkinson FULL REVIEW
60
May 31, 2012
At first American Animal has a mysterious unreality to it, a strange diorama about easy leisure's emptiness. But when James admits he's taken a job - upending the roomies' slacker utopia - American Animal becomes a philosophically strident evening of speechifying local theater (topic: human evolution).
By Robert Abele FULL REVIEW
60
May 15, 2012
While American Animal's finely tuned filmmaking is leagues above the usual Indiewood sloppiness, all the movie-quoting manic episodes feel like empty grandstanding; it's hard to tell where D'Elia's own psychotic cinephilia ends and the character's begins.
By David Fear FULL REVIEW
33
May 16, 2012
Seen as some kind of absurdist, meta-textual horror story, American Animal almost works. In every other way? It's fuckin' poopy-loopy.
By Noel Murray FULL REVIEW
30
May 17, 2012
It's showtime!" says Jimmy, the one-man band of American Animal. And for Matt D'Elia, who plays him in this hour and a half of pretentious mind games, it certainly is. There are other players, but it's all about Jimmy, portrayed with a free-associative, Jim Carrey-like mania.
FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company American Moving Pictures, AWOL Film
Release Date May 18, 2012
Duration 1 h 35 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline Some of us evolve slower than others.
Website http://americananimalmovie.com/
View All Details

Awards

SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination

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