Critic Reviews

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  An exceptionally compassionate, fair-minded film that clearly states, beyond any rational benefit of the doubt, that raising potentially dangerous animals as pets is destructive to animals and humans alike.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  Explores the growing trend of treating dangerous animals as just another household pet.

• Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

  Spends rather too much time in the troubling company of Terry Brumfield, a barely mobile invalid who houses two full-grown African lions and their four cubs in a trailer in his backyard.

• Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

  There's a kind of macho element to the movie that contradicts Harrison's interest in humane treatment with filming the suffering of animals and hoisting a couple of them for the camera.

• Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

  Love is messy, unfathomable, and occasionally lethal, as this low-budget, benignly prosaic exposé of the trade in non-domesticated animals proves.

• Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

  This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments...

• Danny Minton, Fort Bend Sun

  Incredibly informational, interesting and profoundly moving.

• Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

  alarming and heartbreaking documentary ... examines the small but apparently rapidly growing subculture of people who keep exotic animals as pets.

• Tasha Robinson, AV Club

  The documentary shoots fish in a barrel -- or maybe snakes in Tupperware -- but it does so with gripping, maddening, well-told stories.

• Robert W. Butler, Kansas City Star

  A documentary that examines the exotic animal phenomenon and discovers -- without getting sanctimonious -- much madness.

• Matt Pais, RedEye

  Throws bits of information at random, like an exotic pet chucking you-know-what.

• Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com

  This fascinating documentary shines a light into an underreported corner of America, the backyards and living rooms that currently house deadly exotic animals that should never have found themselves in captivity at all, much less as pets.

• Betty Jo Tucker, ReelTalk Movie Reviews

  Kudos to producer/director Michael Webber for delivering such an emotional, enlightening and gripping documentary about the dangers of keeping wild animals as pets.

• Glenn Heath Jr., Slant Magazine

  The documentary isn't about presenting a balanced opinion, but creating an ideological four-alarm fire about this epidemic of irresponsibility and arrogance.

• Barbara Goslawski, Boxoffice Magazine

  Lions and tigers and bears -- oh my! Even the requisite venomous snakes chew up the scenery in this film.

• Maitland McDonagh, Film Journal International

  Sympathetic but clear-eyed documentary...about the rewards and liabilities of America's growing fascination with exotic pets...

• Mike Scott, Times-Picayune

  As engrossing as it is emotionally charged.

• Matt Singer, IFC.com

  The Elephant in the Living Room goes a bit overboard with the sensationalistic news clips... but Brumfield's story is deeply affecting

• Justin Strout, Orlando Weekly

  The Elephant in the Living Room is structurally scattershot but its evidence is sound and fair, its characters sympathetic and its message, if muddled, is still important and effectively delivered.

Read all 19 critic reviews