Parents' Guide to Cow

Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold takes an unflinching and highly emotive look at the life of a dairy cow. Filmed from a cows'-eye view -- the camera often placed literally at this level -- Cow forgoes explanatory voice-overs, confident that the documentary footage itself is enough to portray the experience without moralizing or dramatizing. It is incredibly powerful stuff that's going to be hard to watch for most, no matter their views on dairy consumption. Which slightly begs the question, who is this for? There will be those who already understand this as truth and have opted out of dairy consumption, others who accept it as a fact of life and a necessary means to an end, and those who wish to look the other way. In which case, it seems unlikely they'd choose to sit through a 90-minute documentary that refuses to let them do so. The film invites viewers to look not only at the cows' experience, but directly into their big round eyes. And the cows are looking straight back.

Among the distressing scenes of overly full udders and isolated calves, tender interludes can be found as cows gently lick each other and nuzzle heads, or rush to the help of another's baby. Moments of relief also make an impact, such as when the cows are given space to roam in a field, clumsily jumping with joy at their freedom and gazing peacefully out at the stars. Each viewer will no doubt watch the film within the framework of their own beliefs. But while Arnold never anthropomorphizes Luma, it's difficult not to attribute feelings to her experience and to feel some emotion in return.