WILD INSIDE – Review by Loren King
One of the best documentaries so far this year, Wild Inside is as layered and textured as the thick wrap of feathers enveloping Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl whose year of living free albiet dangerously in New York City earned him a rightful place in urban lore.
Director Penny Lane charts how Falco seduced the city after he escaped from captivity in the Central Park Zoo in 2023. As is true of most stellar documentaries about animals and birds, Wild Inside is ultimately about human beings. Besides Falco, the stars of this film are a small band of avid birders and photographers who followed Falco’s journey from the first day he appeared free — standing on the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue, just outside of Central Park — to when he spread his wings and set out to explore the rest of Manhattan.
The images that these friends of Falso captured of Falco, whether perched in a tree in the park; hunting rats for food; soaring in flight; or on a rooftop and silhouetted against the city skyline, are stunning. Lane’s interviews with many New Yorkers, all of whom have their own varied reasons for their keen interest in Falco’s survival, are delightful, informative and ultimately very moving. Besides being an important cultural look at the short post-captivity life of one unforgettable owl and the city that fell in love with him, “Wild Inside,” without preachiness, raises thoughtful questions about what it means to live in captivity; the role of zoos; issues of pest control in an urban environment; and ultimately the existential question of what it means to be free.
