Au royaume des fauves

C'est le genre de documentaire dans lequel vous êtes impressionné par la quantité de matériel intime et en coulisses que les créateurs ont réussi à collecter et par la durée de la vie réelle qu'ils couvrent. Et ils ont réussi à en faire une véritable histoire de destins humains, qui analyse en détail les personnages principaux et a un développement dramatique avec des rebondissements inattendus, comme dans un film d'action. Sans parler de la façon dont il se faufile astucieusement entre les différents points de vue des personnes impliquées dans les événements mystérieux, aboutissant finalement à une enquête du FBI. Il suffit en tant que spectateur d'être résistant à l'observation d'êtres documentés dont la pensée et le fonctionnement sont si bizarres qu'après cinq heures en leur compagnie, vous devez vous vider la tête avec une bouteille de gin. (14/04/2020)

Hello all you cool cats and kittens. In recent years, true-crime documentary TV series have been the epitome of what's “unthinkable". And that's doubly true in this case. The main characters are eccentric, egomaniacal, hypocritical rednecks engaged in a dispute, who above all love attention, money, mullets (“business in the front, party in the back"), horrible hackneyed  country songs, guns and big cats. But it could (and should) have one or two episodes shorter. It loses pace in some places. However, there are many topics covered in the series: breeding big cats in captivity and their conditions, the financial business resulting from it, the guy who was the inspiration for Tony Montana (in which other show would such a character be the least interesting?), femininity/masculinity, building a commune/cult with everything that goes with it, an inheritance worth millions, a presidential candidacy, tons of meth and, above all, the gradually escalating backstabbing among everyone involved, up to point of murder, etc. So, it will keep you entertained at all times. Which you will know for sure from the fact that you will constantly shake your head every time you see an “unthinkable" or “it can’t be possible" moment, and your neck will hurt like hell. But maybe it would be appropriate to wait another year or two, because even “after the end" there is and will still be a lot of interesting things going on in those cases. (21/03/2020)

It's hard to believe this is real and not some bizarre reality show. A redneck zoo where animals and people are killed and murders are planned shows the true face of the American dream. (05/12/2020)

Au royaume des fauves offre un regard fascinant et sans scrupules sur une communauté bien particulière de gens qui ont établi leur carrière et leurs activités sur l’exploitation des félins, les magouilles, les mensonges et, de temps en temps, également le crime. J’avais déjà remarqué il y a deux ans, avec Don't F**k With Cats, que Netflix avait une affinité pour le genre « true crime », ce qui semble se confirmer ici. Je me demande juste si on aura droit à – et de quoi aura l’air – la version jouée de « l’aventure » de Joe Exotic avec Nicolas Cage dans le rôle principal ! (01/01/2021)

The Tiger King series is not the unrivalled revelation it is considered to be, it’s just a prime example of how a documentary should be made. Picking a rich subject, gaining the trust of everyone involved, and being able to become part of their space until they ultimately forget the ubiquity of the documentary crew. With any luck, the dramaturgy will then take care of itself. Which is what happened here. Far from being pure observation, however, there are classic narrative shortcuts, cross-cuts, and quite obviously blatant antipathy towards the protagonist's nemesis Carole Baskin, even though the creator of the documentary, Eric Goode, as a lifelong animal advocate, is fundamentally on her side. Scenes where the camera slowly follows her cold eyes as someone's voice over lists off the evidence for her having murdered her millionaire husband years ago, or slow-motion shots of her cuddling with her husband's shrimp after Joe Exotic was given what essentially amounts to a life sentence builds an indiscriminate monument of a universal enemy of taste and humanity in general. The circus around Joe Exotic itself then contributes wonderfully to the mythology of "the freest country in the world," the upturned face of the American Dream, and to the catalogue of haunted mystery ranches and their associated characters, where it can stand somewhere alongside Waco, Neverland, or Spahn Ranch, retroactively proving how accurately the underbelly of rural America was portrayed in the first season of True Detective. PS: Anyway, the eighth episode with the world's most embarrassing man as the host is a blast. PPS: As a hint for the beginning, the only more or less positive characters in the series are identified by the fact that they are missing more than half of their teeth or at least one limb (this doesn't include John Finlay, who doesn't have the mental capacity to become either a positive or negative character) PPPS: Here we meet clearly the worst assassin since our Citrón. (04/07/2020)