Zoo
THINKFilm | Release Date: April 25, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Bold and unforgettable meditation on a truly bizarre incident that pokes at the very heart of one of our culture's biggest taboos. Read full review
90
VarietyScott Foundas
A breathtakingly original nonfiction work by Seattle-based filmmaker Robinson Devor (whose "Police Beat" was among the highlights of Sundance's 2005 dramatic competition). Read full review
90
Village VoiceNathan Lee
The beautiful and beguiling new film by Robinson Devor meditates on the Enumclaw incident through a hypnotic blend of original reporting, staged reenactment, testimony of involved parties (both zoophiles and local law enforcement), and pervasive, somewhat precious lyricism. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The result is an immersive experience that never forgets the basic facts of the story but attempts with a level head and open mind to understand how in the world it might happen. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Whether meaning to or not, Devor and his accomplished crew expand our concept of the documentary film, which relegates this documentary to art houses, not porn theaters. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerGianni Truzzi
The surprise of this locally produced, stylized documentary is that it could leave you wishing it had told a little bit more. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Devor's sympathy for both the men and the animals is humane, yet his movie is palpably sad. A sense of shame cuts through all the ambiguity. You know less about what you've watched when Zoo is over than you did when it started. And that's what makes the movie so hard to shake. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleNeva Chonin
Compelling. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Quiet, sensitive, resolutely unsensational documentary about virtually the most sensational subject you can imagine. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
It would have been easy to focus on the eroticism of horses, who, let's face it, are beautiful creatures to look at even for the nonzoophilically inclined, but Devor shows the animals only sparingly. For him, what's most interesting is what the horses represent to the men who (gulp) love them: the wildness and purity of nature itself. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Zoo is a cool sensibility married to a hot topic, a poetic film about a forbidden, unsettling subject. Elegantly made and eerily lyrical, it deals with what director Robinson Devor has accurately called "the last taboo, the boundary of something comprehensible." Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
To what degree does Zoo test our limits of tolerance? In the end, not much, which is why Devor's strange, carefully composed objet d'art is a limited achievement. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Devor doesn't endorse horse-on-man sex, but he does attempt--with sympathy--to account for the appeal. Read full review
60
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Zoo avoids any taint of exploitation, but it errs on the opposite extreme. I came away from it wanting a little less Art and a lot more simple reportage. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Paradoxically, it is precisely because Mr. Devor refuses to acknowledge the murkiness that clings to every frame in his film, because he refuses to engage with the world beyond that of the zoophiles, that they seem like creatures from some never-ending night. Read full review
50
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Constructing the narrative (made up mostly of dramatic reenactments, although given the static nature of many of the scenes, the word "dramatic" is pushing it) obliquely, Devor and co-writer Charles Mudede weave in the thread concerning the individual referred to as "Mr. Hands" into the film almost casually. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
You could wander into this poetic documentary willing to be sympathetic toward its subject -- men who have sex with horses -- and still find Zoo cryptic and borderline bogus. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderStaff (Not credited)
Interviewees are too busy excusing themselves to offer much illumination into their desires, and Devor's moody style (silhouettes, reenactments, an ominously throbbing score) only heightens the sleazy Dateline NBC feel. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Time and again, Devor sabotages his own attempt to bring "zoos," literally and figuratively, into the light. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
A bizarre quasi-documentary that more or less tries to rationalize bestiality as a harmless quirk. Read full review
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