The Wolfpack

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 documentary that leaves you with many different feelings. The failure of the father with the outside world, the psychological problems, the desperation of his mother, the silence of his mother maybe the cowardly, the communication of the boys with the father was given in a beautiful flow. More lively documentary with video recordings used in the past. Throughout the film you are watching with a lot of questions and emptiness. There is a lot of information, especially about his brothers, but his sister's world is not mentioned. 84 minutes is less, you think "but then" when the movie is over

The Angulo family live in an apartment in New York's Lower East Side. Including the mother and father, there are nine of them. The boys spend considerable time re-enacting the contents of their favourite movies using home-made props and make-up. They are obsessed with movies in actual fact. But this can possibly be explained on account of the fact that these boys have more or less remained indoors their whole lives. Their domineering father being the primary reason this decision has been enforced, although the mother seems quite happy with the idea also. The boys seem okay with this situation, which from the outside seems incredibly unnatural and absurd. The boys existence makes me think of the life of a house cat; a type of feline that has been brought up and conditioned to stay indoors, such that it knows no different way of living, despite the fact that such an existence goes completely against the natural way of this type of animal. When its human beings submitting to this sort of thing though, it starts to seem more than a little bit strange.

The Wolfpack certainly has an unusual story to tell. For this reason I was somewhat disappointed with the film. While there is considerable interview material, for some reason there isn't all that much insight and I came away still being none the wiser about how this situation arose and was maintained for so many years. It's about people cut off from society through choice, yet you have to wonder how the social services could have allowed it. Children will go along with things because they know no different, unaware of what damage may be being done. I can't help think that these boys have been deprived of a considerable amount that they may come to fully realise in later life and their mother and father consequently seem unfit parents. The father in particular did not come out of this very well, his position was he was protesting against the system by choosing to not work and instead laze around at home drinking alcohol and watching TV. I wasn't very convinced by this stance. The boys seem surprisingly balanced considering their restrictive upbringing but I never even got a sense of what they felt when they finally emerged outside. So while the source material here is certainly of some interest, I can't say I thought too much of the execution and I left somewhat underwhelmed.

I enjoyed this.

I thought the nature of the family and the back story made the audience easily interested.the cuts to video footage of cinema footage and the boys leaving the apartment was an absolute winner.

While we don't get a full back story on the dad and his impact its impact is evident through the boys interaction with him. His dis like of or non acceptance is pretty evident by the way he acts when the boys finally go on a road trip. I liked it, great footage, easy to like the rogue characters and enough left unexplained to make it a good film overall

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.