Tripping Animals, Meet ‘Corporate Animals’

This movie and beer pairing is all about taking a detour away from the mainstream.

The Movie: Satirical Comedy-Horror / 2019 / Screen Media Films

The Beer: Sour Ale with orange and blackberry / 6% ABV / Tripping Animals Brewing Co. – Miami, Florida

*Mild Spoilers*

I’d heard of Corporate Animals when it first came out in 2019. But somewhere between the following year’s movie theater shutdowns and the recent Marvel releases taking over the scene, I’d forgotten all about it. So, when it started automatically playing after another movie ended on Hulu one evening, it took me completely by surprise. Kind of like when I first tried Tripping Animals Brewing. I’d heard about them earlier, but by the time I got my hands on their beer it felt like a totally new discovery.

Corporate Animals, meet Tripping Animals.

The Movie Review

You know those moments where you pick up the remote and end up frozen in place, staring at the screen, never pulling the trigger? That’s how I got sucked into this thoroughly bizarre comedy horror. Or is it a straight satire of corporate work life? All of the above. With a constant stream of cringeworthy moments and banter between the characters that frequently veers off of the task at hand, Corporate Animals is like a really dark version of The Office with some 127 Hours and The Descent sprinkled in.

Now, Hollywood’s depiction of workplaces is typically a negative one. Between The Wolf of Wall Street, Office Space, The Firm, Philadelphia, The Devil Wears Prada, Horrible Bosses, and just about every movie that revolves around the characters’ working lives, situations are dire. Heck, Anchorman is hilarious, but that is one toxic news studio. So at this point, lampooning corporate culture is too easy of a target to hit.

And that’s where Corporate Animals succeeds. Like its workplace movie predecessors, this movie’s portrayal of life in the business isn’t a pretty one. But instead of going with the standard story of workers revolting or the boss’ longstanding bad practices coming to a head in the form of legal trouble, the plot here colors outside of the lines.

Yes, the boss (Demi Moore) is a horrible one, but she’s very far from being the biggest threat here. Her being a bad boss quickly becomes the side story once she and all of her employees get accidentally trapped inside a desert cave. From there on out, it’s full survival mode while various characters come to terms with their present lives and the decisions that may or may not have lead them there. In other office movies, cannibalism between employees is figurative. Here, it’s very literal. And while gross, it’s surprisingly funny.

Does the movie achieve in sending the message it’s trying to convey? Is it as innovative as it thinks it is Perhaps not. But it is an entertaining departure from typical workplace stories. At the end of the day, I’ll always respect a movie that dares to try something different more than the one that plays it safe.

Which brings me to Tripping Animals Brewing.

The Beer Pairing

When it comes to reputation and positive reviews, Miami’s Tripping Animals Brewing Co. is much more solid than Corporate Animals. Florida’s craft beer scene has exploded over the past several years with a lot of strong contenders. But it was Tripping Animals that Hop Culture named the state’s “Hottest New Brewery” of 2020. As of publication, the microbrewery also has a 4.08 Untappd rating after over 150,000 checkins, which is quite impressive. Also, the name Tripping Animals is just plain fun — their beer can art even sports colorful illustrations of animals, and it’s hard to choose my favorite one.

Name play aside, the reason I’m pairing Corporate Animals with beer from Tripping Animals is in the spirit of trying something new. Sure, these guys have mastered classic styles like Lagers, Pale Ales, and Porters, but they’re also constantly honing their skills with newer styles. Right next to their Jackass Triple IPA, you might spot Triple Berry Pie Piggy (a full-bodied Sour that tastes like pie!) or Quesillo for Days (a Stout aged in bourbon barrels for 14 months!). Whereas most breweries specialize in maybe one to three different styles, Tripping Animals has no weak spots thus far.

It’s perhaps this devotion to mastering everything — classic and weird alike — that makes them truly cutting edge.

The deviation from the norm isn’t just the beer itself. If you follow American craft beer, you may have noticed that common founding stories include someone who got sick of the rat race and decided to focus full time on their homebrewing passion. Tripping Animals founders Daniel Chocron, Ignacio Montenegro, Juan Manuel Torres and Iker Elorriaga did get their start homebrewing, but they were in college at the time. They were also in their home country of Venezuela, which doesn’t exactly have a big craft beer scene.

As Montenegro shared with Hop Culture, they “were coming from a country where craft beer wasn’t a thing. We only had Venezuela macro lagers.”

Daring to be different, the group kept at it. Montenegro eventually relocated to Missouri to learn the professional trade, later convincing his partners to set up shop with him in Florida. As has already been established, they’ve beaten out longtime mainstays to become a state favorite.

So, it doesn’t really matter which Tripping Animals brew you choose to pair with Corporate Animals. The important thing is that you’re trying something new.