Movie review: ‘The Wolfpack’

When does eccentricity become cruelty? When does family togetherness tip from close to claustrophobic? And if a flower of individuality blossoms between the cracks of parental control, do the creative ends justify the authoritarian means?

These are just three of the questions that emerge after watching The Wolfpack, a fascinating documentary about the Angulo brothers, six Lower East Side Manhattan boys who were rarely allowed to leave their apartment. While the parents were loathe to let their home-schooled children out, they had no problem bringing the world in through the lens of the movies.

Subsequently, the brothers became obsessed with watching — and, more importantly, re-enacting — landmark cinema. They remake the likes of The Dark Knight with an amazing sense for detail considering their budget wouldn’t buy a decent lunch. (To make the Batman costume, they used yoga mats and cereal boxes.)

Hollywood becomes their window to the world, much moreso than the real ones in their apartment, beyond which, their parents warn, are dangers too numerous to mention.

Director Crystal Moselle — who apparently came across the boys five years ago during one of their few adventures outside their four walls — gets the brothers and even their mom, Susanne, to open up about their incredibly sheltered lives, though their dad, Oscar, is a tougher nut to crack. (There’s also a developmentally challenged older sister.)

There are no other talking heads or narration. Moselle merely drops us in the middle of this discomfiting family dynamic and many questions are left unanswered. (Like how does a family of nine survive in a tiny New York apartment? After years of seclusion, why did they agree to put it all out there like this?)

But what could have been just a depressing trip into emotional abuse ends up being a celebration of the human spirit.

The boys, who now range in age from 16 to 23, are bright and funny, and when they do go out together — shades on, long hair flowing down rail-thin bodies — they look like a somewhat awkward but cool rock band you’d like to get to know.

Moselle’s documentary is the next best thing.

Exclusive: Angelika Dallas; Angelika Plano

This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 6:26 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘The Wolfpack’."