'Animals' Review: Affleck's Netflix Kidnap Thriller — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- "Animals" is Ben Affleck's sixth directing credit and his first since 2022's "Air," released directly to Netflix rather than theatrically
- Ben Affleck stars as Mark Kimball, a wealthy Beverly Hills attorney running for mayor whose son is kidnapped on Halloween and held for a $7 million ransom
- Kerry Washington plays Abigail, Mark's wife, whose own online extramarital affair runs parallel to the crisis, while the family's $10 million home underscores the satire's targets
- Steven Yeun co-stars as Mark's flat campaign manager Sam and Gillian Anderson appears as Dayle Burton, a British fixer in a white pantsuit brought in to secure the ransom
- Affleck co-wrote the script with Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, with cinematography by veteran DP Robert Elswit and a supporting turn from "Emilia Pérez" standout Adriana Paz as the family's Mexican nanny
- The Variety review calls Affleck's lead performance "convincingly unnerved" but labels the film "disposable pulp" that briefly dangles a "starkly and breathtakingly true" vision of American inequality before retreating to lurid thriller mechanics
Why it matters: Variety's verdict frames the film as competent genre work rather than a prestige statement — a notable pivot for Affleck after his Oscar-winning "Argo" and mixed follow-ups "Live by Night" and "Air." That framing aligns with the harsher Deadline ("Stretched Too Thin") and IndieWire ("literally just bad TV") takes across other coverage, while NYT's "Politician's Dilemma" angle suggests the political-satire hook is the lone point of cross-outlet interest. For Netflix, the question of whether the film justifies a streaming-exclusive strategy over a theatrical bid remains open in the reviews.
Ask SkimNews
