Jacqueline Castel, award-winning director and screenwriter, returned to the Sundance Film Festival to premiere a new take on a classic werewolf tale in My Animal. The film stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez as Heather, the redheaded social misfit whose animalistic transformation during a full moon keeps her as a prisoner in her own life. The screenplay, written by Jae Matthews, focuses on the human elements of connection, sexuality, and freedom. Though these themes elevate this lopsided screenplay to a film worth watching, the limitations are hard to ignore. My Animal, despite all the efforts from Castel’s direction, is bogged down by its snail-like pacing and uneventful genre-blending.
Heather, a teenager struggling against the constrictive forces in her small town life in Canada, longs to escape her stifling family dynamic. Her mother, Patti (Heidi von Palleske), is a longtime alcoholic whose condition affects the entire family dynamic. Then, there’s the hockey team Heather longs to join but cannot because of her gender. Given these factors that contribute to her mundane albeit suffocating life, it's no wonder she’s drawn to the tantalizing and gorgeous figure skater Jonny (Amandla Stenberg). As their relationship blossoms, Heather must keep her animalistic instincts at bay. But the closer she gets to Jonny, the more difficult it is for her to do so.
Castel’s take on a classic mythos is both alluring and underwhelming. The film is at its best when it sets itself as a teen romance, enabling the characters to grow and transform into independent young adults. Heather, who lived a lonely life for so long, comes to a sexual awakening upon her budding romance with Stenberg’s Jonny. Often conflicted with her sense of self thanks to a condition she inherited from her father Henry (Stephen McHattie), she goes on to blossom into a young woman with new-found confidence, friendships, and opportunity. These contextualized experiences humanize Heather to the point in which the werewolf tale comes off as an after-thought and unnecessary to the story.
Even though her werewolf identity is at the core of her isolation, Matthews’ screenplay offers limited moments to examine this side of Heather save a few times in which she handcuffs herself to the bed. It isn’t until the film’s ending that an angered Heather allows herself to literally let loose and transform completely. With such reduced opportunity to visualize the other side to Heather, Castel’s feature is often hampered by the slow pacing leading to a watching experience that is all anticipation and rare payout.
Despite some of these restrictions, My Animal is a confident debut thanks to great technical achievements. Dean Hurley’s sound design, in particular, offers an ominous ambiance that pairs well with Heather’s gradual liberation — it's akin to finally letting the beast out of its cage. Bryn McCashin’s alluring cinematography also stands out, which accentuates the steady tension embedded within each scene. These components enhance Castel’s vision, which centers Heather and Jonny in their own confined and steamy romantic world. But these isolated features are better than the movie as a whole. And the glaring imbalance will be difficult for viewers to ignore.
Given the restrictions of the script, My Animal comes off more as a good queer teenage coming-of-age story than an intriguing addition to a classic genre. But with this limitation comes the incredible opportunity given to Menuez and Stenberg to command the camera. Their organic chemistry is luscious and larger than life. If anything, it’s one of the elements of this lopsided feature that is guaranteed to keep viewers compelled to the story.
An uneven debut that is better as a queer teen romance than a genre film, My Animal is a hybrid of great technical achievements and rough genre-blending. The film boasts sensational performances from Menuez and Stenberg. Yet, the early promises of an unleashed werewolf tale die faster before it even hints at taking off. Confident in her vision, Castel’s debut contains an alluring and steamy romance engrossed with style and emotional appeal. However, the inability to commit to balance results in a watching experience that is mostly potential and rare execution.
My Animal premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 22. The film is 103 minutes long and not yet rated.