OF THE
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Sundance judges called it a "humanizing look at the life and bizarre death of a seemingly normal Seattle family man who met his untimely end after an unusual encounter with a horse".[6] The Seattle Times called it "A tough sell that gets respect at Sundance",[7] also noting the local economic effect of landmark films which put a location "on the map". OC Weekly film says, "Zoo achieves the seemingly impossible: It tells the luridly reported tale of a Pacific Northwest engineer for Boeing's[8] fatal sexual encounter with a horse in a way that’s haunting rather than shocking and tender beyond reason."[9] Similar views were expressed by the Los Angeles Times ("remarkably, an elegant, eerily lyrical film has resulted")[10] and the Toronto Star, "gorgeously artful ... one of the most beautifully restrained, formally distinctive and mysterious films of the entire festival".[11] Other reviewers criticized the film for breaching "the last taboo", or for sinking to new depths: "More compelling than the depths of man's degeneracy is our cultural rationalization of 'art,' whereby pushing the envelope is confused with genius and scuttling the last taboo is seen as an expression of sophistication."I haven't seen it and don't plan to as to my mind it gives a .alt meaning to "animal husbandry" I don't want to know about.
Comment: "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." --George Orwell