THE WOLFPACK (2015) ***1/2 Absorbing and at times frustrating documentary about the Angulo brothers, six Native American siblings, who were more or less imprisoned in their NYC Lower East Side apartment by their loving yet domineering father, whose only escape was through their love of movies (their father provided dozens of videos for their family entertainment) and using their creativity recreating the films entirely by homemade methods and ingenuity. While filmmaker Crystal Moselle allows her subjects to get in touch with themselves as they realize they can actually break free of their fortress of solitude it remains also with many unanswered (or worse yet unspoken) questions (um, just HOW did she manage to convince the family to allow her to film them warts and all?) While you root for the family to break away from strangleholds of odd love by the paterfamilias (including their somewhat argumentably abused mother as well) you also admire their spirits unbroken particularly the eldest son who clearly has an eye to be on his own
as a filmmaker.
Review of The Wolfpack
