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WILD INSIDE – Review by Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin , , , , , ,
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Wild Inside is filmmaker Penny Lane’s captivating documentry about Flaco, a singularly determined Eurasian eagle-owl who (woot woot) escaped his captivity at the New York’s Central Park Zoo in February 2023 and, soaring free over Manhattan, became an icon of inspiration for New Yorkers and millions of fans world wide. Lane uses archival footage of Flaco in flight and perched on favorite tree limbs or highrise window sills, mixed with on camera interviews with Flaco fans, followers and conservationists who teamed up to track his whereabouts and welfare.

Flaco’s survival was considered something of a miracle because he’d been hatched into captivity, so he had no experience in hunting for food or evading harm from predators. Additionally, Manhattan is entirely outside of the natural regional habitat of Eurasian eagle-owls. But Flaco quickly, courageously figured it out and tamed the wilds of NYC for a just over year before he flew into a building and died.

The city went into mourning when their beloved Flaco passed away. There were candlelight vigils and memorial sites at Flaco’s favorite perches. There was also widespread news — international! – coverage of his passing. Flaco’s autopsy revealed that he’d actually been suffring ill health from rat poison he’d ingested from his prey, the discovery of which which brought new laws regulating the city’s widespread use of toxic pesticides.

Lane does a fine job of recounting the events, covering the conservation controversy about protecting wild species by keeping them in protective captivity and — most engaging of all — capturing the spirit of Flaco who was, afterall, wild inside. RIP Flaco.

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for AWFJ.org, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, NY Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).