Chicken People Explained

Chicken People
Director:Nicole Lucas Haimes
Music:Michael Hearst
Cinematography:Martina Radwan
Editing:Kevin Klauber, A.C.E.
Sara Booth
Distributor:CMT
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Runtime:83 minutes
Country:United States
Language:English

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]

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.[2] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[3]

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."[4] 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."[5] 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".[6]

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."[7]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Chicken People News. https://web.archive.org/web/20160731200812/http://www.cmt.com/movies/chicken-people/news.jhtml. dead. July 31, 2016. CMT.com. 6 January 2017.
  2. Web site: Chicken People (2016). Rotten Tomatoes. 1 July 2019.
  3. Web site: Chicken People reviews. Metacritic. 5 January 2016.
  4. News: Verongos. Helen T.. Helen T. Verongos. Review: 'Chicken People,' Pampering Royalty That Clucks. 27 December 2016. The New York Times. 22 September 2016.
  5. News: Walsh. Katie. Katie Walsh (journalist). Review: Warm-hearted documentary 'Chicken People' looks at poultry breeders. 27 December 2016. Los Angeles Times. 22 September 2016.
  6. News: Leydon. Joe. Joe Leydon. Film Review: 'Chicken People'. 6 January 2017. Variety. 1 July 2016.
  7. News: Fujishima. Kenji. Kenji Fujishima. Meet the Folks Who Raise Those Fancy-Ass Show Chickens in 'Chicken People'. 7 January 2017. The Village Voice. 23 September 2016.