François (Romain Duris) takes his 16-year-old son, Émile (Paul Kircher), to live in the French countryside after his wife has turned into a she-wolf and taken away from him. Émile desperately wants to reunite with his mother, but he has a different problem when he begins to transform into a wolf.

      Writer/director Thomas Cailley and co-writer Pauline Munier throw the audience right into the middle of the futuristic world where humans have transformed into human/creature hybrids. François and Émile hope that they can start afresh at a home by the countryside. However, the possibility that François' wife might be alive somewhere after a van carrying hybrids crashes into a lake haunts them. Émile flirts with Nina (Billie Blain), a girl from school. Not surprisingly, when he begins to develop symptoms of physical transformation, he tries to hide it from her as well as from his father. He also befriends a bird/human hybrid called Fix (Tom Mercier) and feeds him fish in the forest. The Animal Kingdom has an interesting concept, but doesn't take its ideas far enough. It starts to feel repetitive around the hour mark as the plot meanders without anything surprising or revealing about any of the characters. The relationship between François and Émile remains the heart and soul of the film, though. So, in a way, it's not just a sci-fi movie or coming-of-age movie, but also a story about unconditional love and self-acceptance. How did the transformations happen exactly? Why do they happen? Is it a global issue? There are subplots, i.e. with a police officer (Adèle Exarchopoulos) investigating local killings, that are dull and underdeveloped. World-building and exposition aren't among the film's strengths, unfortunately, nor does it make the most out of its potential to be a provocative, scary and gripping sci-fi thriller .

    The Animal Kingdom is lucky to have Romain Duris and Paul Kircher in the lead roles because they both give moving performances that ground the film in authenticity. Even though the film's sci-fi, horror and thriller elements are weak, the evolving father/son relationship feels organic and the most engaging element. Adèle Exarchopoulos is wasted in an unwritten role, though. There are some scenes with graphic gore that might make some audiences a little uneasy, but that's kept to minimum. This isn't the kind of film that relies on violence and gore to entertain. Nor does it rely on excessive CGI effects. Although it never becomes exhausting per se, it does overstay its welcome and could've used tighter editing because there are pacing issues. At 2 hours and 8 minutes, The Animal Kingdom is mildly engaging, well-acted and surprisingly poignant, but overlong, repetitive and undercooked.

      On the Adamant is a warm, intimate and heartfelt documentary about the Adamant, a therapeutic daycare center floating on the Seine River for adults with mental disorders. Director Nicolas Philibert opts for a fly-on-the-wall approach similar to Frederick Wiseman's approach to documentary filmmaking. There are no talking-head interviews nor lots of informational texts on-screen. You won't get to know anyone on screen very well, but you will get to know their personalities and some snippets from their past as well as their struggles. There's somewhat of a sense of voyeurism as you're watching them interacting. Patient audience members will be rewarded the most because initially, it's not entirely clear what happens inside the barge and what's so significant about it. You, the audience, become a spectator who's observing these people interacting whether they're talking about a films that will be shown for a film group or to hear the faculty commenting on the patients' paintings or counting money at cafe at the end of the day or listening to one of the patients talk about his medication and he feels better while at the daycare center. On the Adamant is a gentle and profoundly human experience. It opens on March 29th, 2024 at IFC Center via Kino Lorber.



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