Admirable film.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The Angulos are an unusual family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The mother had met the Peruvian father while visiting. He fears dark government conspiracies and locked his family inside their apartment. They rarely go out and didn't go outside during one year. There are six boys and one girl who has mental difficulties. Their mother homeschooled the kids. The boys are movie fans and start recreating the films in their apartment.Every family is unusual in their own way. Some families are unusual in every way. The cinematic hook for these boys is obviously their film reenactments. Their effort is pretty good considering the conditions. The movie does skim over some aspects which is not necessarily the filmmaker's fault. The father is probably the most fascinating character but he gets only a few scenes. Those scenes are very compelling but I want more. The filmmakers need to follow the guy. They need to find out what he does outside of the family. What does the family do for money? There's a blonde girl who suddenly shows up at the end. Who is she? There are a few questions that need better answers. The most compelling scene happens off screen. It's the first walk that the oldest boy takes outside without permission. He recounts the walk but it's not the same. It's a fascinating family but the movie leaves a few things unanswered.

I thought this documentary was a mess. Sketches of information were given to us and left up to the viewer to fill in the blanks. First and foremost, what is going on with the parents? We know that the father is abusive toward the mother and has kept her virtually locked away from her family and society. Okay, we get that. But then it shows a scene of her out jogging. Hello! Would you care to elaborate on why this woman who has been abused for 20 years is out exercising? Why did she decide to call her mother after all these years? If she is going outdoors now, too then does she plan on leaving him? Does she realize how sick her husband is? Well, we don't know what she thinks because it appears the film maker never asked her.The father, who is the central character here, is shown as a lazy drunk who either is paranoid or uses his distrust of society as a reason to sit at home all day and drink. Why doesn't the filmmaker get him to talk so we can figure out if he's a leach or mentally ill? Does he abuse his kids, too? If he kept his kids inside all those years, he doesn't seem too upset that they're going out. And wait.....is that him and his wife walking hand and hand through a park together? If you find the 20/20 story somewhere then I recommend watching that instead of this. You'll come away with twice the understanding in half the time.

'THE WOLFPACK': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Critically acclaimed documentary flick; about seven siblings, six brothers and a sister, that were locked away for fourteen years, by their father, in an apartment in the Lower East side of New York City. Everything they knew, about the world, was learned by watching movies. The film was directed by first-time feature filmmaker Crystal Moselle; who discovered the Angulo brothers, walking down First Avenue (in Manhattan), re-enacting their favorite films. I really enjoyed the movie, and think it's one of the best documentaries in years!The film tells the story of six brothers (Mukunda, Narayana, Govinda, Bhagavan, Krisna and Jagadesh), and their sister (Visnu), who were locked up in an apartment, in New York City, for 14 years. Their mother homeschooled them, and their father (who had the only key to the place) forbid them from leaving. One day the eldest (Mukunda) escaped; and then courageously explored the city, for the first time, in a Michael Myers mask. He was soon arrested, and sent to a mental hospital; the Angulo siblings' world changed forever, after that day.The film is beautifully shot, and scored; and it always seems a bit haunting (and disturbing), but ultimately inspiring. I could really relate to the six boys; having grown-up obsessed with movies, and overprotected by my mother. I was also really shy, and socially naive (and still am today); but I also really relate to their relentless passion for film. The scenes of the brothers reenacting all of their favorite movies, are priceless. There's some moral question, of whether the filmmakers exploited these children (in order to tell a great story); and I'm not sure what I think about that. It's still a great movie though!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/f4ptmnmXTWE

'The Wolfpack' doesn't come together'The Wolfpack' is a film like no other. Sometimes that works well as it did in 'Inception', 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'Blue Velvet.' At other times, it fails horribly, like it did in one of David Lynch's latest films (I stopped keeping up after a couple terrible films), 'Inland Empire.' 'The Wolfpack' is not completely terrible. It is interesting and takes on a unique subject. However, the film lacks focus and doesn't address the issues it highlights in any concrete manner. I have the sense the director, Crystal Moselle, just ran into the family somewhere and decided to film them on a lark. Then after a couple of years, she decided to make a movie of it because graduation time in film school required her to present a film and the footage of nine people holed up in a Lower East Side tenement apartment was the only material she had available. Point is, there was no forethought in what the director/creator was doing, and it shows in the film. Don't get me wrong. The film is interesting, and it's completely pointless. It's not quite surreal enough to stand on its own; it's far too repetitive for that. A dramatic moment in the film is when five of the brothers finally step out of the apartment together and see a film in a theater. That's it. While it might be dramatic for the brothers, the film doesn't convey that. The brothers also wonder aimlessly around Coney Island, and yes, the whole family takes an outing to a farm. As a teacher I once had was fond of asking when I presented a paper, "So what?" So what indeed. With a subject this compelling, it's a shame there was only documentation of random repetitiveness. That isn't enough.Rating: Rent it. It's been a long time since I intensely desired that a film end. It wasn't because I was uncomfortable with the subject, it was the feeling that I was ultimately just watching paint dry that made me want to leave. It's hard to believe that the film is only 80 minutes long. Although the feelings of claustrophobia in the film's apartment work well on a large screen, there is not enough in the film to make it worth seeing in the theater. However, it wouldn't be a bad rental or better yet, a good sociological treatise. A cursory view of articles about the film tell us far more about the family than the film does, and that's a shame. Peace, Tex Shelters