Os Irmãos Lobo

The six Angulo boys, their sister and their mother live in a low-income New York City apartment with their father, Oscar Angulo, who won't let them go outside. Well, some years they get to leave their apartment and some years they don't. They are home schooled, which in the case of these kids, means watching movies all day, transcribing the scripts and then filming their own versions. These feral, Peruvian John Travolta looking teenagers have probably seen Pulp Fiction fifty times, though they most certainly prefer Reservoir Dogs. Normality, to them, is film. The world they find in film is inspiring, and, coupled with the natural tendency of the captured to escape, they break out, running down the streets of Manhattan, only to be chased down by budding documentary filmmaker, Crystal Moselle. The film begins there. Although the documentary disregards some major questions around the reasons for entrapment and isolation, the boys are fascinating and their impact is lasting. This film inspires the big dreamers; those who are looking to break their shackles.

The subjects of the new documentary "The Wolfpack" have to be some of the most odd people I've seen put to film all year. The individuals I'm talking about are a group of brothers who, throughout their childhood, were shut off from society and forced to stay in their New York City apartment. Being home-schooled and in a unique state of seclusion - in which they only got outside nine or ten times a year - they formed a religious love of movies. Without internet and with plenty of time on their hands, they compiled homemade scripts of their most treasured films (which range from "The Dark Knight" to "Gone With the Wind"). This, of course, all for the purpose of remaking them to their own delight. Cinema helps them pass the time and gain access to a bit of the world that they can't actually see themselves.

The opening sequence is most telling, in which they lovingly act out their favorite moments from Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs". It's at once extremely funny, with their cardboard guns and baggy suits, yet haunting in the same sense. It's the definition of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, in which we're not really sure how the filmmakers found these kids, much less were allowed into their lives. The fact that some of this footage even exists is a testament to the superb direction by Crystal Moselle.

I found it captivating from beginning to end. The mystery of why these boys have been treated this way is handled excellently. Nothing is revealed too quickly, partly because the answers aren't all that simple. It's definitely a slow-build, but completely absorbing. You won't be able to take your eyes off this family. The story of their lives is incredibly gripping, and absolutely worthy of this skillfully-made film.

In Wolfpack, winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Award (2015), the Angulo family is indeed alone and secluded from its environment. Secluded in their Lower Eastside of Manhattan apartment, the 6 children have rarely gone outside because father deems New York too dangerous. That's not the exceptional part of this odd-ball documentary.

The WOW factor is that the kids have grown up relatively unscathed by their isolation. Their saving grace has been their movie addiction, wherein they re-enact scenes from famous films such as Reservoir Dogs and The Dark Knight. Although we don't actually see them filming, we do watch them create ingenious costumes and devise tableaux to emphasize the drama, albeit fictional, found outside their cramped world. As in the recent Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, young people are turning to movies for their societal awareness and outlet for their creative impulses. It could be much worse.

That's all there is, Folks. First-time helmer Crystal Moselle doesn't allow much more depth, for instance on what makes their strong but not particularly articulate father, who gave his children Sanskrit names, do the things he does like imprisoning his kids to avoid their ruin from the streets of New York. Or why mom has been mostly withdrawn yet loving. However as in Grey Gardens, we are privileged observers without restraint, a virtue in documentary film making.

It's just that beyond the cardboard box Batman costumes and impressive toy guns, not much else happens. Perhaps it's the Seinfeld "about nothing" motif but only without Jerry's wit.

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