During the early days of lockdown, as the world adjusted to a new normal, millions became enthralled by “Tiger King”, Netflix’s stranger-than-fiction docuseries about big cat loving oddballs and the surreal dramas they found themselves embroiled in. It was the first mega-hit of COVID-era entertainment, and almost immediately inspired legions of discourse pertaining to its questionable ethics and leering gaze towards its eccentric ensemble. The questions the series raised about journalistic responsibility have clearly weighed on the mind of “Tiger King” director Eric Goode, and with his latest dive into the world of humans who own rare animals, HBO’s “Chimp Crazy”, he seems keen to learn from the mistakes of the past.
It’s not hard to see what drew Goode to this story. From the moment we’re introduced to Tonia Haddix, the woman at the center of the narrative, it’s clear that she had the potential to be a Joe Exotic in waiting. Perma-tanned, forever at the lip filler’s clinic and obsessed with all things pink, the self-described Dolly Parton of the chimp world admits on several occasions that she loves these animals more than her own children. Her love of these animals leads her to the Missouri Primate Foundation, the ramshackle institution of Connie Casey, an infamous chimp breeder. There, she meets Tonka, a former animal actor who appeared in the likes of “George of the Jungle” and “Buddy”. It is love at first sight, but the shady market of wild animal pets and Haddix’s own dealings fall under the microscope of both the local authorities and the animal rights charity PETA. Soon, a legal battle that involves funeral pyres, subterfuge, and the actor Alan Cumming takes over.
From the get-go, the ethical landmine of documentary filmmaking and Goode’s approach is set up. Now toxic to his favored subjects thanks to “Tiger King,” he hires a proxy director to talk to Haddix and Casey, the latter of whom avoids the spotlight as much as possible. Step forward Dwayne Cunningham, a circus clown and former animal trainer with a shady past, to take on the role of sympathetic proxy to Goode’s camera. Not that it takes much for Haddix to open up. She’s happy to let the filmmakers know her feelings on PETA (negative), Capuchin monkeys (she prefers chimps) and Tonka (he is her son, more so than her actual kid.) While Goode and company can’t entirely resist lingering on Tonia’s personality quirks, they mercifully avoid turning her into a pseudo-ironic punching bag.
You can see the ways that they’re trying to swerve past the “Tiger King” beats, even when they present themselves so openly, such as Haddix’s goading of PETA’s Jared Goodman (who she nicknames “Pee-Wee Herman”) or interviews with supporting players who have major main character energy. Unlike “Tiger King,” “Chimp Crazy” is far more focused on the real subject: the animals. The buying and selling of chimpanzees and other endangered species, for the purposes of business, entertainment and pet ownership, is a tangled ecosystem with shockingly little legal oversight in many cases. Casey’s rundown chimp breeding center is described at one point as being a puppy mill. Haddix, who becomes a rare animal broker, uses a public Facebook page to get sales. As the series goes on, this shady industry reveals itself to be both sinister and ridiculous, a tangled web of dealers and schemers who ignore the blatant misery they’re causing in favor of fuelling their own delusions (and pockets.)
“Chimp Crazy” is not cruel towards Tonia Haddix, but it certainly doesn’t give her the folk hero whitewash that “Tiger King” unduly offered Joe Exotic. She’s often charming and seems dedicated to these animals, but there’s a stark difference between animal love and animal expertise. Respect is a whole other issue. Tonia wails and sobs over the fate of Tonka while feeding him energy drinks and Happy Meals. She is one of many women who project maternal power and anthropomorphic desires onto these animals, believing them to essentially be hairy humans who love them in return. Every moment you see her with a chimp, you’re cringing in preparation for when they eventually snap. In some scenes, it looks as though Tonka comes all too close to tearing off one of Tonia’s fingers.
Smartly, “Chimp Crazy” opens up its scope beyond this one case. Instances of pet chimps attacking humans are all too familiar headline news now. There’s Travis, the beloved chimp child of Sandra Herold (and born in Connie Casey’s compound), who tore her friend Charla Nash to pieces and left her without a face. Across the country, there was Buck, another pet who attacked his owner and was shot dead. The stories are the same across the board: the chimps were such well-behaved babies but then they got too rowdy, and nobody ever expected them to be so brutal except for those who saw the warning signs from the beginning. When Herold loses Travis and is left traumatized by her friend’s near-death experience, it takes her less than a year to get another pet chimp.
If the ethics of owning and dealing wild animals are pretty cut-and-dry here (spoiler: you shouldn’t do it), the filmmaking issues are slightly more disordered. Goode gets his interviews through deceit and as Haddix opens herself up to Cunningham, a personable guy who has real empathy for her, the crew must face the consequences of their set-up. At what point does the supposedly passive spectator of history step forward and change the narrative? It makes for more compelling viewing as well as helping to alleviate the undeniable ick that “Tiger King” elicited.
In a moment of brutal candor, Haddix admits that her love of chimps is akin to an addiction, like opening a bag of potato chips: “You can’t have just one.” Truly, as the series unfolds, her initial earnestness is chipped away to expose a callousness and obsessive commitment to retaining control over these animals at any cost. Like the women who owned Travis and Buck, she is willing to discard scientific evidence, moral decency, and the obvious pain in her own animals’ eyes to fuel the dream that she is their mother. It’s an infuriating tragedy, a portrait of misguided passion that can only end one way. Haddix and her ilk insist time and time again that they love these animals but “Chimp Crazy” makes it clear that love, if that’s even what this is, simply isn’t enough.
“Chimp Crazy” premieres Sunday, Aug. 18, on HBO and streams on Max.
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