The Learning Channel must be kicking itself over not discovering “The Wolfpack” before filmmaker Crystal Moselle did. The Angulos of New York’s lower East Side have nothing on the Duggars of Arkansas.
Big, eccentric family raised in a cultish atmosphere? Check.
Politically radical patriarch? Check.
Birth control-averse parents? Check.
Undiscussed suggestions of abuse? Checkmate.
“The Wolfpack” captures the coming of age of six brothers, sons of a couple of parents they describe as “hippies,” who grew up poor, confined to a dumpy apartment in New York City, home-schooled, “protected” from the outside world, but given complete access to movies.
Born to a controlling, drunken Peruvian dad, Oscar, and a Midwestern mom (Susanne) who fell for him on a trip to the Andes, these seven kids (there’s also a daughter) were raised “shut off” from other people. They were given “Hare Krishna” (Sanskrit) names, taught by their mom and not allowed outside more than a couple of times a year.
“We were in a prison,” one son admits. “Dad overdid it,” suggests another. “The Wolfpack” catches them just as they’re coming into their own, passively challenging the tyrant they live under and starting to experience the world.