''Wild Tigers I Have Known'' is a 2006

coming of age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written, edited, produced and directed by

Cam Archer Cam Archer (born 1981) is an American independent filmmaker, photographer and sound designer, currently residing in Santa Cruz, California. ''Cinemad'' Career Archer's first success was with his 2003 student produced short film, ''bobbycrush'', a ...

and starring Malcolm Stumpf, Patrick White, Max Paradise,

Fairuza Balk Fairuza Balk (born May 21, 1974) is an American actress, musician, and visual artist. Influential in popular culture, Balk is known for her portrayals of distinctive " goth-girl" characters, often with a dark edge. She has appeared in numerous in ...

Kim Dickens Kimberly Jan Dickens (born June 18, 1965) is an American actress. Her film debut was in the 1995 comedy film ''Palookaville''. Dickens played lead roles in the films '' Truth or Consequences, N.M.'' (1997), ''Zero Effect'' (1998) and '' Mercury R ...

, and Tom Gilroy. The film follows Logan, a lonely 13-year-old, as he comes to terms with his sexual identity, the hell of middle school, wild

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

and life with his single mother. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was given a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

on February 28, 2007. The IFC-released version had a shorter runtime than the one shown at Sundance. In 2021, an updated

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

of the film was released that honored Archer's original cut of the film.

Plot

Logan is a 13-year-old daydreamer who is starting to come into the realization he might be

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

. Unaware of how to hide his orientation, he quickly becomes a target for bullying by his peers. He also starts to experiment with

cross-dressing Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself. Cross-dressing has play ...

and wearing makeup. His best friend, the nerdy Joey, starts to distance himself when Logan insists on wearing lipstick for a photograph. Logan befriends Rodeo, a popular ninth-grader who does not join in on making Logan's life miserable. Logan develops a crush on Rodeo and soon finds himself creating the persona of "Leah", a girl who has all the confidence Logan lacks. Using the voice of Leah, Logan calls Rodeo on the phone and, pretending to be a female admirer, leaves him seductive messages. Meanwhile, wild mountain lions have been straying into populated areas of town. When one happens to wander onto the school's campus and is shot dead, it signifies a moment in Logan's coming-of-age.

Cast

* Malcolm Stumpf as Logan * Patrick White as Rodeo * Max Paradise as Joey *

as Logan's Mom *

as The Counselor * Tom Gilroy as The Principal

Production

The film is based on Archer's

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

''Bobbycrush''. Said Archer, "I just wanted to make a film about being a lonely, daydreamer kid, and how a long-spent lonely childhood can lead to something of an identity crisis, or lack of identity." The script was accepted into the 2005 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, where it was workshopped.

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultur ...

and producer

Scott Rudin Scott Rudin (born July 14, 1958) is an American film, television, and theatre producer. His films include the Academy Award-winning Best Picture ''No Country for Old Men,'' as well as ''Uncut Gems'', '' Lady Bird, Fences, The Girl with the Dragon ...

were executive producers on the film, in addition to producers Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy. The film was shot in and around Archer's hometown of

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

Music

The film's soundtrack features music by

Comets on Fire Comets on Fire were an American noise rock band from Santa Cruz, California, United States. The band was formed in 1999 by guitarist and vocalist Ethan Miller and longtime friend bassist Ben Flashman, who were seeking to create rhythmically a ...

Current 93 Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant member. Background Tibet has been the only const ...

Emily Jane White Emily Jane White is an American singer and songwriter from Oakland, California who has released six solo albums and toured internationally. Early life White was raised in Fort Bragg, California.Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, ...

, Pantaleimon and

Six Organs of Admittance Six Organs of Admittance is the primary musical project of American guitarist Ben Chasny. Chasny's music is largely guitar-based and is often considered new folk; however, it includes obvious influences, marked by the use of drones, chimes, and ...

. Emily Jane White's contribution, the song "Wild Tigers I Have Known", was written specifically for the film and can be heard during the end credits. The song appears on the film's official soundtrack and on White's debut album, ''

Dark Undercoat ''Dark Undercoat'' is the debut album by Emily Jane White released in 2007 on label Double Negative Records in the U.S. and by Talitres records in France. Promotion Cam Archer directed the music videos for "Wild Tigers I Have Known" (2006), ...

''. A music video, produced and directed by Archer, is included as an extra on the DVD release of the film.

Reception

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 2006

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

, and went on to be screened at

New Directors/New Films Festival The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, and organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society o ...

London International Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

and

AFI Film Festival The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

. On February 28, 2007, the film was released theatrically by IFC Films. The IFC release was a shorter edition than Archer's original cut as some scenes were excised. The original length was 98 minutes long, compared to the 81-minute theatrical cut.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 24 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Beautiful imagery and sharp performances make ''Wild Tigers'' a memorable film from first-time director Cam Archer." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 52 based on 11 critics' reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised the film, preferring the shortened version. Holden said the film captures "the moment at the dawn of adolescence when hormones and daydreams swirl into a heady fog of confusion and longing" and "achingly sympathizes with the desperate lengths an obsessed adolescent will go to in pursuit of love. As you watch the movie, you pray that, in the language of '' Tea and Sympathy'', the future teachers of Logan’s life lessons will 'be kind.'"

Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Mor ...

of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' similarly gave a positive review, noting the dearth of films that depict the space between childhood and the teen years. Morris wrote, "Archer has culled his sense memories and burgeoning talent (he's 24) into a maiden work of experimentalism: blackout editing transitions, ambient noise, digital video bits, superimpositions, moments of sloth. The avant-gardeness of it all might have been precious beyond belief...But Archer is not grasping at stylistic straws. He believes in the little world he's captured." Morris concluded, "Archer isn't necessarily taking us anywhere new, but his movie's rapture is beautiful inside and out." Dennis Harvey of ''Variety'' was less complementary, opining that while the film "operates at least as much in the realms of poetical reverie and metaphor as it does pubescent psychodrama," these combined elements make for a "frequently awkward mix."

Accolades

Cinematographer and frequent Archer collaborator,

Aaron Platt Aaron Platt, (born June 9, 1981) is an American film director and cinematographer. He previously resided in Venice, California, and Brooklyn, New York. He currently resides in Seattle with his wife, Karissa Hochberg, a wardrobe stylist. Platt ...

, received a 2007

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...

nomination for his work on the film.

Home media

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on July 10, 2007 by

Genius Entertainment Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...

, which went out of print when the company went defunct. There was also a European DVD-release issued by Soda Pictures and edited to an even shorter runtime of 78 minutes. On September 28, 2021, Altered Innocence released the film as a 15th anniversary-edition

including a new director's cut which strikes a balance between the Sundance cut and the theatrical cut.

References

External links

* * * * {{Rotten Tomatoes , m/wild_tigers_i_have_known , Wild Tigers I Have Known 2006 films 2006 directorial debut films 2006 drama films 2006 independent films American coming-of-age drama films American teen LGBT-related films Features based on short films Films about anti-LGBT sentiment Films about bullying Films about puberty Films set in Santa Cruz County, California 2000s coming-of-age drama films 2006 LGBT-related films LGBT-related coming-of-age films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films