“ZOO,” the new film by the Seattle director Robinson Devor, arrived at this year’s Sundance Film Festival better known as “the horse sex documentary.” But as festival audiences discovered, this description, while not incorrect, was also misleading. The film revisits the true story of a man who died in July 2005 after a sexual encounter with a horse in rural Washington State but does so with a lyricism startlingly at odds with the sensational content.
“This topic is not something people want to think about,” Mr. Devor said in an interview at Sundance, summing up both the challenge of marketing the film and the reason he and his writing partner, Charles Mudede, were compelled to make it.
“This topic is not something people want to think about,” Oh really? I beg to differ. That was an online classic. I think it goes without saying the NY Times is jealous that they were not the ones to bring it to the public’s attention. One would think it’s right up their unspeakable alley, as evidenced by the saccharine treatment of the topic. The rest of their review will boost your misanthropy through the roof. Some people really should be fucked to death by horses, even if the poor beasts need counseling afterwards.
