It’s cinema as anthropology in what can only be described as a true American horror story. Wanting nothing more than to shelter their brood from the perils of a society gone mad, a domineering father and his acquiescent spouse imprison the kids, raising them on a steady diet of Hollywood violence but granting access to the outside world but a few times each year. To pass time, the boys re-enact snippets from movies in the family’s vast video holdings. “We always knew the difference between real life and the movies,” remarks one of the older boys. How is this possible when the only exposure he and his sister and five brothers experienced was on the family television set in a walk-up Allegory of the Cave situated in an apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side? There are some scenes one is destined will never forget. Director Crystal Moselle — champion of the nonjudgmental gaze — taking the pack to their first real movie is one of them. (2015) — Scott Marks
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