In an attempt to save the threatened ecosystem, the Florida government hosts an annual competition to remove invasive pythons from the Everglades. For 10 grueling nights, python-mania overtakes the ‘glades as an eclectic group of amateur hunters contends with unforgiving terrain, aggressive nocturnal creatures, and their own desires and demons that push them into the swamp, searching for slithering glory.
“I suppose Xander Robin could have made a straightforward journalistic documentary about the Florida Python Challenge…. Instead, THE PYTHON HUNT has a neon, hallucinatory quality with a synthesizer score (composed by Nick León) that feels ripped straight from an ’80s movie. You almost expect Nicolas Cage and Walton Goggins to show up.” —Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times “Selecting an ensemble of real-life capital-C Characters as our guides through an event that, while pragmatic in conception, proves violently lurid in execution (so to speak), Robin offers a slice of true modern Americana with the same balance of earthy reality and semi-surreal bad taste that made ‘Tiger King’ a viral hit a few years back.” —Guy Lodge, Variety “So much more than it appears at first glance. This isn’t just some quirky look at an obscure American event and subculture or a love letter to the filmmaker’s home state; it’s a sly indictment of 21st-century America, wrapped up in what looks like a trashy thrill ride.” —Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture
