The Wolfpack
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: June 12, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 18, 2015
More than a testament to the power of cinematic storytelling as food for the human spirit, The Wolfpack also is a portrait of a family that has had to rely on each other to survive. Read full review
100
The GuardianJordan HoffmanJan 31, 2015
Not since Grey Gardens has a film invited us into such a strange, barely-functioning home and allowed us to gawk without reservation. This is a nosy movie, but it is altogether fascinating. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 14, 2015
That this is a documentary, this family lived in New York for decades in almost complete separation from its neighbors, is astonishing. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 14, 2015
As the film goes on, their rebellious thirst for freedom and independence slowly builds to a physical and psychological emancipation that Moselle never quite follows through on. Still, she’s discovered a stunning, stranger-than-fiction story and tells it with sensitivity, intimacy, and compassion. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 18, 2015
It tells a story irresistible to our age of rampant voyeurism and reality TV, yet it also has a potent emotional core that cannot be denied. Read full review
90
TimeLisa SchwarzbaumJun 13, 2015
Everything about The Wolfpack is extraordinary. Read full review
90
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJun 9, 2015
The Wolfpack is more like a diorama of the Angulos' unusual childhood than an explanatory documentary. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnJan 31, 2015
Despite the mixture of vérité footage and home movies showing the Angulos in their apartment, The Wolfpack feels more in line with a form of ethnographic storytelling than anything else, because the story is told exclusively in terms of their relationship to it. Read full review
80
CineVueChristine JunAug 27, 2015
Perhaps the greatest shock is how decent the boys turn out to be. They're sincere, articulate, yet self-aware: they have been shaped, not ruined, by their experience. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyAug 19, 2015
A once-in-a-lifetime subject, sensitively brought to the screen, the Angulos’ story makes the strange seem ordinary and the ordinary, insane. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 25, 2015
It's stunning (and amazingly well done) and hard to believe. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 11, 2015
Documentary has a tradition of trafficking in the misery of other people’s lives, so it’s a relief that “The Wolfpack” doesn’t drag you down or offer packaged uplift, but instead tells a strange tale with heart and generosity. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJun 11, 2015
This is the rare “profile” documentary that is also a transcendent work of art. It raises questions we’ll be trying to answer for as long as there is art. Read full review
80
Screen DailyLee MarshallApr 22, 2015
The reason The Wolfpack is so fascinating, and at times so disturbing, is because it keeps us teetering uneasily between empathy for a remarkable human drama and the suspicion that we’re not getting the whole truth, let alone nothing but the truth. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovJun 17, 2015
By the time this harmless but possibly harmed pack of pups is seen approaching the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island for the very first time – “Look at that, there’s people all over the beach,” one brother nervously mutters – it’s clear that there are second acts, and more, in American lives, even ones so borderline freakish as the ones presented here. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 3, 2015
Despite its considerable faults, this bizarre, fascinating story is impossible to shake off, like the expression on the face of one of the brothers as he's talking about his father and begins getting choked up (instead of crying, he smiles convincingly, evidence of a life led having to learn to hide his emotions for fear of reprisal). Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 19, 2015
The movie only looks like a coming-of-age freak show from the outside; in reality, it’s unexpected proof that flowers can grow even in a prison. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 10, 2015
The Wolfpack is frustrating in how much it doesn't tell us about the Angulos and the legal tangle that comes with their release. But once you've met these kids, you won't forget them — or the film that puts a hypnotic and haunting spin on movie love. Read full review
70
The DissolveTasha RobinsonJun 11, 2015
For all its rough, unfinished edges, The Wolfpack is absolutely mesmerizing. Read full review
70
VarietyScott FoundasJan 31, 2015
So weirdly fascinating is the tale of the Angulo clan that one wishes The Wolfpack were that much sharper, more searching and coherently organized. Still, there is much to enjoy in director Crystal Moselle’s debut documentary feature. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 19, 2015
The most perplexing thing about this portrait is that, against all odds, the kids mostly seem outlandishly resilient and good-natured. I say “seem” because, again, I don’t entirely trust this portrait. Too much of what Moselle shows us looks tenderized. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 12, 2015
Despite the sense sometimes that Moselle isn’t driving “Wolfpack” in the way needed to make it truly work, she undeniably finds some beautiful moments in the trajectory of the Angulos, although they are sometimes so fleeting as to frustrate when they aren’t further developed. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 9, 2015
Moselle, granted all this access, leaves so many questions unanswered that The Wolfpack is frustrating to sit through. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJun 12, 2015
Those euphoric moments, scored to Black Sabbath, show the brothers sneaking out in their masks, discovering activism and growing into individuals. You’ll wish Moselle had started, not ended, there. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsKatherine PushkarJun 11, 2015
There is a train-wreck quality to this film. The story is so astounding, you can’t look away. But as a documentary, there are so many questions both unasked and unanswered that it feels more like reality TV, mostly about the spectacle. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 31, 2015
Benefitting from likeable, good-natured subjects and the peculiar pastimes with which they fill their cooped-up hours, the doc certainly gets us interested in and rooting for the Angulo boys. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 10, 2015
The Wolfpack is perhaps too reluctant to pursue lines of inquiry; what starts as a nonfiction mood piece grows frustratingly opaque as the brothers begin to venture out into the real world, meet girls, and get jobs. Read full review
58
The PlaylistKate ErblandJan 31, 2015
The Wolfpack is a film about access, and though we are admitted into the world of the eponymous Wolfpack, not understanding how we got there robs the film of compelling commentary. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineClayton DillardJun 7, 2015
Crystal Moselle aims her cinematic arrow at the hearts of the same choir that Andrew Jarecki's stunted aesthetics preach to. Read full review
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