Sunday, June 21, 2015

Dances with Batman --- Day 4/143

Walk: Embarcadero Cinema
Distance: 3 miles

The Wolfpack

Ciwt is just back from the documentary above.  Strange, upsetting, appalling,   .  But riveting much because of the subject matter - seven children essentially jailed by their parents in their lower east side apartment until they gradually escape into the real world.  Up to that point they live much like (literate) wolves - fed  but doing as they please.  Interestingly, what pleases these six brothers (and one probably retarded sister) is mostly violent U.S. movies (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Batman...the list includes 5,000 - 6,000 titles).  They type and memorize entire scripts, make costumes and props with found objects, and act out and film the movies, with seriousness, integrity and all honor to each movie.

But the documentary is also riveting because the director has edited it in such a way that the audience is basically as trapped as the family.  Things happen randomly, there is no chronology, no questions are answered (like how could this have happened?  why doesn't it stop or get stopped?  who is paying (me?) for the constant food, clothes, housing when the father has never had a job/'doesn't believe in work and the mother's sole profession is home-schooler for her children, and many, many more).  It's upsetting, it's too much, it's random, disturbing to say the least. You want to get away, impose some sense or order -  But You Can't; you're at the mercy of the controlling filmmaker.

Is The Wolfpack recommended by Ciwt?  Probably not except for (die-hard) movie buffs.

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