Secrets of the Wild

In this triptych of linked stories, a working-class family goes about seemingly ordinary lives—on a camping trip, or participating in “take your family to work day.” In the hands of Dustin M. Hoffman, however, things are not quite as ordinary as they seem. Quickly, these scenarios are flung down a surreal rabbit hole filled with bizarre taxidermy museums, and an outrageous relationship involving a silverback gorilla. Yet, amid all of its convention-smashing glee, Secrets of the Wild reveals a generous and moving portrait of a family, a family doing their best to keep it together—to play-act at normalcy, even sanity—in an American landscape slipping into madness.