Social Animals is a depressing, sort of pseudo comedy that features a borderline, unlikable lead in Zoe (played by San Antonio, Texas native, Noel Wells). As far as new releases go in 2018, "Animals" is like Reality Bites, Richard Linklater's Slacker, and 1998's Your Friends & Neighbors being melded in a cinematic blender.
Note to the rebelling filmmakers of Social Animals: Jeanne Garofalo called and wants her undisguised promiscuity back. Also, Jason Patric phoned and wants his sobering masculinity brought back into fruition too. Finally, don't include a fellatio scene with a cucumber just for kicks. It utterly feels like witless filler.
Anyway, the flick dons effective use of Austin, Texas locales and a whiff of the city's legendary music scene. However, "Animals" makes you want to avoid certain parts of that freewheeling borough in the long run. In veracity, words like uneven, honest, tiredly manipulative, and doleful are what I'd use to describe Social Animals.
Director Theresa Bennett (this is her feature film debut) crams several, daft relationship stories into ninety minutes but her main focus is on sad sack Zoe (mentioned earlier). Zoe is a woman who is late on her rent, lives in an RV, and owns an unsuccessful waxing outlet. She's single, almost broke, and smokes pot whenever an average occasion arises. Zoe out of boredom or sheer desperation, befriends a friendly, loser married guy and has an affair with him.
"Animals" despite its decent performances and its effectively rundown, suburban inhabiting, never fully finds a coherent tone. With its Gen X careening, its woe is me dialogue, and its need to include animated illustrations of sexual innuendo, Social Animals might have been germane say, fifteen years ago. Oh and one more thing, what does the title of this movie mean anyway? My rating: 2 stars.
