Critical response
Chicken People has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 100% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.23/10. [5] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [6]
Writing for The New York Times , Helen T. Verongos stated that "these chicken people, with deep connections to their birds, make for a fun and at times astonishing film." [7] In a review for the Los Angeles Times , Katie Walsh wrote that "the film proves to be more than just a glimpse into a world that's easy to titter at. Haimes delves into the larger issues and psychological motivations that drive the kind of obsession that allows one to breed award-winning poultry." [3] Joe Leydon, in a review for Variety , called it an "illuminating and amusingly entertaining look at the thriving subculture of competitive poultry breeders", and wrote that the film "generates a fair amount of suspense, [... but] it also abounds in moments of ineffably charming comic relief". [2]
A review for The Village Voice criticized the filmmaker for not probing deep enough with some of the subjects and their "larger failure [...] in never finding much of a compelling reason for us to care about this subculture beyond surface geek-show intrigue." [4]
