X
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
Summary Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed the Wolfpack, the brothers spend their childhood re-enacting their favorite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. With no friends and living on welfare, ...
Directed By: Crystal Moselle
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 30 m
The Wolfpack
75
6.4
Where to Watch
Summary Locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Angulo brothers learn about the outside world through the films that they watch. Nicknamed the Wolfpack, the brothers spend their childhood re-enacting their favorite films using elaborate homemade props and costumes. With no friends and living on welfare, ...
Directed By: Crystal Moselle
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
75
79% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
21% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
75
79% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
21% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
More than a testament to the power of cinematic storytelling as food for the human spirit, The Wolfpack also is a portrait of a family that has had to rely on each other to survive.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.4
70% Positive
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
13% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 23 User Ratings
6.4
70% Positive
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
13% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
As someone in film school that has a passion for movies I found this documentary very inspiring. The Wolfpack tells a depressing true story about a group of brothers that were kept indoors throughout their entire childhood, never being able to attend a public school or experience the real world around them. Thats when they fell in love with movies as it gave them a glimpse to outside life and allowed them to have experiences unlike anything they had ever seen. I recommend this film especially to people who have a passion for film, it truly is an amazing watch.
Report
A sobering documentary about a family of seven children (6 boys and 1 girl) who are for the most part confined to their New York apartment by their father in order to protect them from the social horrors of the outside world. The film concentrates almost entirely on the six boys who spend a lot of their time watching movies and then enacting them. Educated at home by their mother, who is also their rock and to whom each bears a great love, they are surprisingly well dressed, articulate and speak intelligently of their years of confinement. As the story unfolds their dislike of their father, and the regime that he has inflicted upon them, becomes apparent. Each boy, although obviously internally damaged, demonstrates an optimistic attitude and promise for the future. Their mother’s heart- breaking recollection of dreams never realised due to lack of funds, contributes to a very sad, but definitely not depressing tale. The father’s reason for his actions can be viewed as a paradox. There is much truth in the fact that the outside world is a scary and dangerous place. However, the damage inflicted on the children as a result of their alternate sheltered and confined existence leaves its own scars. Ultimately, despite the uncertainties evident in life, one has to be given the chance and freedom to find one’s own way. The film leaves you feeling optimistic that the boys’, against all the odds, will do just that.
Report
A once-in-a-lifetime subject, sensitively brought to the screen, the Angulos’ story makes the strange seem ordinary and the ordinary, insane.
By the time this harmless but possibly harmed pack of pups is seen approaching the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island for the very first time – “Look at that, there’s people all over the beach,” one brother nervously mutters – it’s clear that there are second acts, and more, in American lives, even ones so borderline freakish as the ones presented here.
So weirdly fascinating is the tale of the Angulo clan that one wishes The Wolfpack were that much sharper, more searching and coherently organized. Still, there is much to enjoy in director Crystal Moselle’s debut documentary feature.
Those euphoric moments, scored to Black Sabbath, show the brothers sneaking out in their masks, discovering activism and growing into individuals. You’ll wish Moselle had started, not ended, there.
Crystal Moselle aims her cinematic arrow at the hearts of the same choir that Andrew Jarecki's stunted aesthetics preach to.
This is a very interesting movie. But it is very disturbing too. That these kids are raised in this environment is at the same time tragic and fascinating. That they have found a way to express themselves in film is quite inspiring. The access the film maker gets into their world is amazing.
Report
Documentary recounting the remarkable story of the Angulo brothers, a large group of teenage siblings who use their obsession with movies to connect to the outside world after being confined to a small New York apartment for their entire childhood by a bizarre isolationist father.
In her directorial debut, jack of many cinematic trades Crystal Moselle manages to capture a unique microcosm of modern day New York which manages to work as bizarre coming of age story and ode to the redemptive power of film, wrapped in a true story of fear of the modern world which results in an oppressive family unit, part isolationist cult and part hippie commune thanks to the oddball family patriarch.
‘The Wolpack’ begins with the Angulos as teenagers having already begun to rebel against their imprisonment along with their mother by tentatively venturing into the streets of New York, accompanied by director Moselle they experience things we might take for granted like going to the beach for the first time or seeing their first film in a cinema, Moselle spent years interviewing the family and combines all this footage with home video shot by the Angulos, including remarkably faithful recreations of the many thousands of films they have grown up with.
The result is a bizarrely captivating story that provokes thought and raises questions about the father and the oppressive family dynamic, we’ve all heard of isolationist American cults, but how could something like this happen smack in the middle of one of the most overpopulated cities in the world?
‘The Wolpack’ is certainly not without its faults, perhaps expectedly for a debut film, it’s very rough around the edges and the theme starts to wear thin as the novelty wears off, there is no real arc for the characters as they’ve already achieved emancipation and Moselle only really delves skin-deep into the emotional turmoil within the family.
Perhaps the most off-putting element is the feeling that not all is what it seems, maybe it’s just us but we get the sense that dramatic “liberties” may have been taken with the story and something just doesn’t seem right, nevertheless if you take what you see at face value and despite its limitations, ‘The Wolpack’ is strange enough to hold your attention throughout.
The Bottom Line…
Despite its faults ‘The Wolpack’ is a uniquely captivating little debut documentary, thanks largely to the extraordinary true story of isolation, fear, oppression, emancipation and redemption, on a journey fuelled by the liberating power of cinema.
Report
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Report
The Wolfpack is a documentary about a strange family, with its own forms of education and upbringing, totally respectable.
The most important point is perhaps the management of the family about their cinematographic influence, perhaps the most important element, after all this is cinema and they talk about cinema.
Report
Production Company
Kotva Films,
Verisimilitude
Release Date Jun 12, 2015
Duration 1 h 30 m
Rating R
Genres
Awards
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations
New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
