Chicken People

2016 American film
  • Julie Goldman
  • Caroline Kaplan
  • Chris Clements
  • Terry Leonard
CinematographyMartina RadwanEdited byKevin Klauber, A.C.E.
Sara BoothMusic byMichael Hearst
Production
companies
  • Motto Pictures
  • Strongman
  • Haimes Film
Distributed byCMT
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release dates
  • 13 March 2016 (2016-03-13) (SXSW)
  • 23 September 2016 (2016-09-23)
Running time
83 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Chicken People is a 2016 documentary film about people who breed and raise chickens for exhibition. It is focused primarily on three subjects who compete in the Ohio National Poultry Show in Columbus, Ohio.

A number of reviewers compared it to the mockumentary Best in Show.[1][2][3][4]

Synopsis

After an overview of people who have a passion for raising poultry, the film focuses on three main characters — Brian Caraker, a musical theater performer from Branson, Missouri; Brian Knox, an engineer of high performance race engines from New Hampshire; and Shari McCollough, a homemaker from Crawfordsville, Indiana.

Release

Critical response

Chicken People has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 100% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.23/10.[5] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]

Writing for The New York Times, Helen T. Verongos stated that "these chicken people, with deep connections to their birds, make for a fun and at times astonishing film."[7] In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Katie Walsh wrote that "the film proves to be more than just a glimpse into a world that's easy to titter at. Haimes delves into the larger issues and psychological motivations that drive the kind of obsession that allows one to breed award-winning poultry."[3] Joe Leydon, in a review for Variety, called it an "illuminating and amusingly entertaining look at the thriving subculture of competitive poultry breeders", and wrote that the film "generates a fair amount of suspense, [... but] it also abounds in moments of ineffably charming comic relief".[2]

A review for The Village Voice criticized the filmmaker for not probing deep enough with some of the subjects and their "larger failure [...] in never finding much of a compelling reason for us to care about this subculture beyond surface geek-show intrigue."[4]

References

  1. ^ "Chicken People News". CMT.com. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b Leydon, Joe (1 July 2016). "Film Review: 'Chicken People'". Variety. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
  3. ^ a b Walsh, Katie (22 September 2016). "Review: Warm-hearted documentary 'Chicken People' looks at poultry breeders". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b Fujishima, Kenji (23 September 2016). "Meet the Folks Who Raise Those Fancy-Ass Show Chickens in 'Chicken People'". The Village Voice. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  5. ^ "Chicken People (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  6. ^ "Chicken People reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  7. ^ Verongos, Helen T. (22 September 2016). "Review: 'Chicken People,' Pampering Royalty That Clucks". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 December 2016.

External links