Synopsis: “Believing he is a wolf trapped in a human body, Jacob (George MacKay) eats, sleeps, and lives like a wolf — much to the shock of his family. When he’s sent to a clinic, Jacob and his animal-bound peers are forced to undergo increasingly extreme forms of ‘curative’ therapies.”
Finding your wolf pack can be taken literally sometimes. The new Focus Features film, Wolf, directed by Nathalie Biancheri does just that. Mixing a bit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the oddities of The Lobster, this new art house indie film is here to make you howl.
Jacob, played by 1917 break out star George MacKay, think’s he is in fact a wolf. His parents find a facility where other animal dysmorphic patients reside. Jacob consequentially finds himself amongst like minded people who also think themselves different animals but the rehabilitation staff is determined to make them all think otherwise (by any means necessary). The main doctor, coined The Zookeeper, played cruelly by Paddy Considine, starts to change Jacob’s mind with methods beyond the scope of anything medically acceptable. Jacob finds a bright full moon light amongst this darkness when he meets a girl, Wildcat, played by Lily-Rose Depp. Their budding romance and Jacob’s road to recovery comes with a series of animalistic outcomes.
Wolf comes with a lot of harsh moments. What starts as an uncomfortable chuckle as you meet the other patients soon turns into sadness as you want them to just simply be who they are. The story is definitely a beautiful way to explain the mistreatment of mental illness and inner identity struggles. It had a lot of sad romanticism to every scene. Yes, there are a lot of second hand embarrassment feels as you watch the actors on screen act like animals but it soon becomes really watchable as you becomes more entangled in the story.
What really stands out in Wolf is the visuals. The set design was so simplistic yet so entrancing. I felt visually a bit Wes Anderson meets The Lobster. Some of the frames were almost begging for a cult classic print to be made from them. It was calm and hectic at the same time but always maintaining gorgeous compositions.
Sadly Wolf lacked an ending. It had so much to offer but just sort of ended without wrapping up anything. I don’t want to spoil it whatsoever for you but the pay off isn’t there. It sets up this beautiful love story and then cuts to black. I’m sure there’s probably more to it but I was looking for something more concrete.
Everyone in Wolf did a superb job acting. I understand it was probably awkward to get into those characters. I can’t imagine trying to act like a parrot for days on end. But everyone washed that awkwardness away with their ability to capture the characters they were. George MacKay and Paddy Considine were the winners in the pack though. Considine blew me away as the head doctor they called Zookeeper, giving me every ounce of villain Nurse Ratched realness. I wanted to punch him so badly and that’s how you know he did an amazing job as the bad guy. It really had Once Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest dynamics throughout.
Yet with everything going for it, Wolf just sort of howled at the moon for nothing. A cult classic if only it had an ending perhaps. I certainly didn’t expect to like this film so much and was sort of heartbroken to not see the outcome of the story lines of the patients who I had fallen in love with. I just wanted to know more and for once I’d be in line for a sequel.
Final thoughts?
Wolf is a strange beast. It’s beautiful and complicated, awkward and strange. I loved it for some reason. Well I loved it up until the point it ended and then was just sort of sad. I saw so much potential in this movie and was begging for more time amongst this zoo of incredible creatures. All in all this film is definitely not for everyone but it does a good job of highlighting something about being yourself, animal or not, you just have to run free sometimes.
Writer. Geek. Final Girl.
