Wow.
Locked away for 14 years, on the 16th floor of a Lower East Side housing project, 6 boys, their sister, mother and father live as their own tribe. With virtually no contact with the outside world except for being allowed to watch movies all day every day, the boys painstakingly transcribe every word, build elaborate sets, costumes, and props, and recreate their favorite movies to pass the time in their apartment.
When one son decides to go for a walk around the neighborhood the dynamic begins to shift and slowly the family begins to leave the apartment and experience many firsts; going to the movies, eating in a restaurant, going to the beach, and so on.
This is an American documentary that follows this family over 5 years as they expand their boundaries and slowly experience the outside world.
This is riveting, exhilarating, incredible, fun, and ultimately very moving. I don't think there has been such a charming, honest, and bizarre view of family dysfunction since Grey Gardens.
Oh, and these boys. Wow.
I connected with this film not only as an unbridled cinephile, but also in the way the boys learn about the world through movies, in turn viewing thousands of movies partly due to unorthodox circumstances that resulted in staying home all day an awful lot as a kid.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
5/5