There are few things more precious than our closest friendships. They can be intimate, obsessive and, at times, painfully messy. Long under-explored in film, Animals – with a script by Emma Jane Unsworth and adapted from her novel of the same name – take on the all-consuming force of female friendship as other life options come into view.

Holliday Grainger, fresh from her star turn in Strike, the TV series adapted from JK Rowling’s detective novels, is compelling and believable as Laura, an aspiring writer who has been bouncing around Dublin with her best friend, barista and fellow rebel-come-muse, Tyler – Alia Shawkat of Arrested Development fame.

In this bold attempt by award-winning Australian director Sophie Hyde – who broke out with debut film 52 Tuesdays about a unique mother-daughter relationship – the best friends are so close they speak in shorthand. The audience plays keep-up from the outset in Animals as the dialogue between the two is delivered in poetic musings. It’s a little contrived; much better is the film’s exploration of their fluctuating friendship.

Animals review: a beautiful ode to real female friendships