Wild Inside

During [Flaco's] year in the city, he inspired countless people and changed so many lives. Lane’s film reminds us that that journey doesn’t have to end, and really, should only push us to look closer, to look deeper, and to marvel at not just what we’ve lost, but what we have.

Lane elegantly juggles the many different perspectives on Flaco, the scientific and preservationist impulses as well as the inevitable anthropomorphism and dreamy symbolism. She finds in the bird’s journey plenty of hope as well as caution, while her playful filmmaking keeps things moving along entertainingly.

So Wild Inside is full of shots of Flaco that one filmmaker could never capture alone. And this gives it the feeling of a group project, a collective tribute to an animal that will always be part of civic lore. Much like New York City, in this movie the whole is much greater, and far more delightful, than the sum of its individual parts.

[Lane] raises thorny questions around the irreversible ways human beings’ livelihoods and infrastructure have damaged animals’ lifestyles and whether, in an age of distraction, human beings have the capacity to still be in awe of the world around them.