'Wolfpack' is messy but fascinating viewing

<b>Mini-review: 'The Wolfpack'</b>

Crystal Moselle's documentary "The Wolfpack" makes for a journalistic mess of unanswered questions and glossed-over details.

Still, the sheer idea that a New York family of nine could not only survive, but thrive while being sealed inside a Lower East Side Manhattan apartment most of their lives makes for fascinating viewing that no reality TV show can touch.

The Angulo brothers know nothing about the real world except for what they watch in the movies that their controlling father Oscar allows them to see. With no social life, the brothers re-enact their favorite films by writing out each screenplay by hand, assembling handcrafted props and costumes, then shooting their mini-recreations on video inside their claustrophobic apartment.

All things considered, they're not that bad. In fact, the imagination and craftsmanship on a tight budget is very impressive. Check out their redo of "Reservoir Dogs."

For reasons not revealed in the doc, Moselle gets carte blanche access to the Angulo home to record the daily routines of the home-schooled kids, each taken aside for comments about their experiences and dreams.

The family paradigm shifts when then 15-year-old Mukunda escapes while wearing a maniac Michael Myers mask. He scares New Yorkers so much that he winds up in court-mandated therapy that, regretfully, Moselle doesn't access.

The Peruvian-born Dad (Mom is Midwestern American) loathes work and loves booze, but he isn't the controlling monster we have been conditioned to expect. Dad says he kept his kids indoors to protect them from the city's mean streets.

But how do the Angulos finance their suits, costumes and elaborate props? (They apparently live only on public assistance and Mom's home-schooling stipend from the state.)

There is no discussion, hardly a recognition, of sex in this apartment of exploding hormones and sexual curiosity. Clearly, Moselle wants to concentrate on the unique elements of the Angulos, how they use movies to access the outside world, like adolescent versions of Chance the gardener, Peter Sellers' TV-educated character from "Being There."

There's a great story inside "The Wolfpack," but Moselle doesn't know how to tell it with clarity and insight. It's difficult to keep the Angulos' identities straight. Even at the end when the kids appear on screen with their names, they're wearing disguises so we still don't get the kids connected with their names.

Yet, as confusing and incomplete as "The Wolfpack" feels, Moselle transports us into a world we are compelled to explore, if only to answer the recurring question in the back of our minds: "How did they make that extra cool Batman costume?"

"The Wolfpack" opens at the Music Box Theatre, Chicago. At 7:45 p.m. Friday, June 19, the Chicago Film Critics Association will present the movie as part of the ongoing Music Box Theatre Talk Series. Go to musicboxtheatre.com. Rated R for language. 80 minutes. ★ ★ ★

<i> Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!</i>