Film Review: WILD INSIDE

Even the worst documentaries are at least educational, which is more than you can say about most bad Hollywood movies. But the best of the genre opens your eyes to worlds you never knew existed. Wild Inside is one of those. Just released, it tells the magical true story of Falco, a male Eurasian Eagle-Owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo in February of 2023 and spent a year of delicious freedom -- the first in his life -- sightseeing in New York City.

From the moment a passer-by spots him on a city street, just sitting on the pavement looking wide-eyed and completely lost, we are in love with Falco. Soon enough the entire city was too. He was on the TV news, in magazines and newspapers, and all over the internet. A huge following of bird nerds soon sprung up and spent their nights tracking him, filming him, photographing him and thrilling over his every move.

Flaco himself is a beautiful and wondrous creature. Seeing him learn to fly and fend for himself, after 13 years of captivity in his tiny zoo enclosure, is enthralling. Afraid he will starve without his curated meals from the zookeeper, we celebrate his first kill -- a rat -- and revel in his survival skills. Go Flaco! 

Equally compelling are his human followers, a group of sensitive souls (with some heavy-duty camera equipment) who we meet through interviews, each of them showing their growing love for the giant bird. Spoiler alert: It's a sad but happy ending, definitely worth your time.