Con’s Score: 4 Claws
This is the seven (possibly eight) part Netflix series that even has Don Trump Junior and the President talking – which isn’t really a recommendation. But it is a compelling, engrossing and repulsing documentary that has the appeal of slow motion car crash. It also reminded me that Coen Brother scripts are a lot closer to American backwood reality than we realise.
The first episodes introduces us to the array of detestable characters. There’s Joe Exotic, a mullet-headed, bone-headed, gay narcissist who loves looking after big cats and young men. There’s Bagavan Antle, who staffs his zoo with attractive young women, many who become his wives. Then there’s Carole (and her cringingly loyal husband Howard Baskin). She runs a cat rescue, which also charges people to look at big cats in little cages. She’s a millionaire after a previous rich husband disappeared mysteriously. She doesn’t seem too heartbroken. Her focus is to have these other zoos shut down because of the way they exploit big cats, feature petting zoos and breed and sell them. And there’s the late entry, Jeff Lowe, who acts like a multi-millionaire, swoops in to save Joe’s park. Jeff likes to use tiger kittens in Vegas as a way to lure young women to his room to have group sex with his girlfriend. Aren’t these a lovely lot?
That’s one remarkable feature of this series, is that there are no redeemable characters (although I do feel sympathy for the TV producer, Rick Kirkham, some of the workers, and the animals). But none of the main characters have anything to redeem them.
The thing about Americans, is that they like to talk. And talk. And talk. Usually about themselves. And this is where directors Rebecca Chailkin and Eric Goode strike gold. There is little filter between Joe Exotic’s thoughts and mouth. He not only likes to express his threats verbally, he also likes to broadcast them on the internet. That’s fine, but not when you’re making death threats. Antle is also expansive on his own greatness and Carole Baskins likes to laugh when she’s struggling with the truth.
Chailkin and Goode also cleverly structure this like a drama. The first two episodes are used to establish characters, with one whole episode dedicated to querying Carole Baskin’s involvement in her husband’s disappearance. Each other episode finishes with a cliff hanger to hook you in, and at roughly 45 minutes, they’re easily digestible. And the way the plot keep twisting with presidential and governor political campaigns, an untimely death and the court case thrown in, makes this riveting.
Did you know there are more tigers in captivity in the US than in the wild? It’s a salient fact, as they’re the main attraction and they get lost in all of this. If we really want to save them, then surely it’s an environmental issue, not who said what about who. But this industry breeds kittens which make lots of money until they’re six weeks old and become dangerous. Then they disappear… anyone who thinks these are conservationists are deluded, particularly these characters.
Take a tour in these zoos. You’ll realise the real and dangerous animals aren’t in cages.
Con Nat’s – On The Screen
