Modern female friendship — and feminism — is top of mind in Sophie Hyde’s Sundance player “Animals.”
Variety has an exclusive first look at the film, which sees Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger as roommates who have torn up the streets of Dublin for a decade with drunken shenanigans and artistic ambition.
When Grainger’s Laura discovers her younger sister is starting a family (while she’s only got an unfinished, unpublished novel to show for her time), panic sets in. Shawkat’s Tyler rolls her eyes at the archaic pressure to settle down.
Temptation to do just that isn’t far around the corner, when Laura meets a devoted artist who inspires her to finish her book, winning her heart in the process. Laura’s own love story causes distress for Tyler, who finds her friend’s traditional path unsettling.
Watch the women debate the institution of marriage and contemporary feminism above.