This was supposed to be an article about how much I hate The Sheep Detectives, but I don’t really want to write that article. It’s not because I changed my mind and think The Sheep Detectives is good. I haven’t. I hate it. I might even say I really hate it. I’ll die on that hill too. It’s just that, also, in addition to hating it, I appreciate what it’s trying to do and respect the hustle.
I see a lot of movies every year, and the sad truth is that most of them are barely seasoned white meat. There’s a handful I really like or even love, a handful I absolutely hate, and then a bunch of mediocrity in the middle that I can’t make myself feel strongly about one way or another. Maybe I’m dead inside, or maybe an overwhelming majority of movies these days are sanitized and workshopped and edited and focus-grouped to the point they become soulless and bland and without a point of view.
Not The Sheep Detectives though. It's about a shepherd who reads detective stories to his flock every night. He dies (not a spoiler), and those same sheep decide to take it upon themselves to investigate his murder... and also to ask really profound questions about what it means to be alive and to be a sheep and to be part of a community.
There’s no way someone pitched this idea to a focus group, and they passively gave it a thumbs up. There’s no way a team of studio executives looked at some of the plot points and creative choices this movie makes and didn’t start nervously pulling their wool out. It’s utterly bizarre in a deeply affecting way that is impossible to be neutral about.
Now, once again, to be clear, in my case, it deeply affected me in a deeply negative way. I hated the contrast in tone between the bumbling human characters and some of the more philosophical animals. I hated one of the movie’s biggest moments, which felt like unearned emotional blackmail. I hated the murder, the investigation and the big reveal. From start to finish, I pretty much hated it all, except the basic idea and the vigor of the execution.
But that level of hate only happens when a movie takes a big swing, and The Sheep Detectives is one big swing after another. It has the guts to explore really dark subject matter and juxtapose that emotional depth with really sophomoric humor. It has the guts to make bold and uncomfortable choices with key characters and fully stand by the consequences. It has the guts to be its own movie at a time when very few movies have unique hoofprints.
Outside of this unhinged rant, The Sheep Detectives has gotten a mostly great response from critics. It’s currently sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. I think you should see it, not because they liked it or because I hated it. You should see it because it’s the type of movie worth having a strong opinion about. It’s strange and bold and messy and everything most movies these days don’t dare to be. Maybe it’ll work for you. Maybe it won’t. Either way, it’ll definitely make you feel something, and in an age of C+ retreads and flavorless dramedies, that’s worth your time.
