We the Animals (2018)

Jack and I really liked this story of a boy and his family, struggling with racism, poverty, the parents' volatile relationship, and growing up (the three tight-knit bi-racial boys are pre-teens, all played by acting newcomers). The leader in Spirit Awards nominations with five, the movie is based on the 2011 debut novel by Justin Torres. The screenplay is co-written by Daniel Kitrosser and director Jeremiah Zagar, the latter who also won the NEXT Innovator Award at Sundance for this movie, which has creative drawings and animation mixed in with the live action.

The narrator, Jonah, is nine, and is played to perfection by Evan Rosado. His older brothers are Josiah Gabriel and Isaiah Kristian. Sheila Vand (she's been in a few things I've seen, including Argo and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) is their loving but undependable mother and Raúl Castillo (I know him best as Nick the bartender in ten episodes of Atypical) is Spirit-nominated as their mercurial father.

We streamed the movie on Prime Video, but, even at home, the wildly swinging camera moves (running after the boys, for example) caused me to move back farther from the screen to avoid Motion-Picture-Motion-Sickness or MPMS. Here's my running list.

This is composer Nick Zammuto's second movie (the first was a documentary) and you can stream the exciting soundtrack on his own website, Apple Music, and Spotify.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics love this as much as the festivals, with an average of 91%. Audiences are a bit less enthusiastic at 78.