The film stars Evan Rosado, Raúl Castillo, Sheila Vand, Isaiah Kristian, and Josiah Gabriel.

[5] Jonah grows up with rambunctious brothers in a working class mixed-race family in upstate New York and must contend with both his volatile father and his emerging homosexuality.

Critics compared the film to Moonlight and Tree of Life and variously called it impressionistic, intimate, woozy, and evocative.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Dreamlike and haunting, We the Animals approaches the coming-of-age odyssey with a uniquely documentarian eye.

"[10] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".