Tribeca 2025 Review: THE WOLF, THE FOX AND THE LEOPARD, Sprawling, Unwieldy, and Utterly Mesmerizing

What does the wolf say?

The Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard
The film enjoys its world premiere at Tribeca 2025.

Written and directed by David Verbeek, the film is structured as an epic dive into a world that's been shaken by environmental disaster, or at least the prospect of a coming, world-changing event.

Is it science fiction? Or an allegory? Or memories of a waking nightmare? It's never made crystal clear, but it doesn't matter, really, because the film is an entirely mesmerizing experience, primarily because of Jessica Reynolds.

She first popped into my consciousness with her tart-tongued supporting role in the vividly entertaining Kneecap (2024), and again with her supporting role as a billionaire's spoiled daughter in the vibrantly entertaining LifeHack, which screened at SXSW. (She made her feature debut in folk horror drama The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw (2020).) None of that, however, prepared me for her first appearance as The Wolf.

Running naked through the woods as an accepted member of a wolf pack, she is discovered only as a by-product of a search for a missing young man. This comes after the young man appeared in the opening scenes as the protagonist. The shift in perspective is part and parcel of writer/director Verbeeck's evident intention to tell a story that is shrouded in mystery and misdirection, complete with a narrative voice (Naomi Kawase) occasionally dipping in to add further perplexing commentary.

Soon after The Wolf is introduced, The Fox and The Leopard (Marie Jung and Nicholas Pinnock) enter the scene, which sets up the balance of the film, which takes place primarily on an oil rig, somewhere in a large body of water. The titular characters form an odd sort of family, where The Fox and The Leopard are the parents and The Wolf is the child.

The thing is, though, The Wolf is an adult, as far as her physical form is concerned, and a child only in that she has very limited experience with humans, and so still must learn how to communicate with spoken words, rather than grunts and groans. She is naive and uneducated, by the standards of the self-assured and self-righteous The Fox and The Leopard. She learned to survive in the woods alone, for reasons that are never explained, however, and she maintains her feral instincts on the oil rig, despite the efforts of her "parents" to bring her up in their way of thinking.

As noted, David Verbeek shapes the narrative in an oddly distinctive form that can be baffling and/or frustrating at times. Yet it remains compelling to watch because Jessica Reynolds is a primal force of nature who resists all attempts to tame her. She appears to adjust, rather than bend entirely, to any forces who want her to conform to their own expectations.

Her instincts have been honed by fierce years of survival, and so she knows that she must, at times, pretend to acquiesce, to appease others, and to appear to obey and submit to their commands, orders, and requests. What does it mean to be civilized, though? Must everyone fit neatly into the pre-established holes that civilization has carved out for humans in the all encompassing natural order of things?

Through it all, Jessica Reynolds bends and twists and roars and moves and screams. She conveys the anguish of the subjugated and, ultimately, the refusal to conform. She is a person who will survive, no matter what anyone else thinks or wants.

It's a soul-touching performance that lays bare the heart of her character. What it says about humanity and the questionable merits of modern civilization is up for debate.

The film enjoys its world premiere at Tribeca Festival 2025. Visit the official site for more information.