Simians: Don’t mess with ‘em! This will be one of the most important lessons of the summer movie season, it seems, and it’s a parable that comes in two flavors: big and blockbuster-y with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and real and emotional with the documentary Project Nim. The latter was one of the best-received films at Sundance, and it chronicles the twisty true story of Nim, a chimpanzee who was taught sign language as part of a seventies science experiment, though it’s the humans involved who get an education about the true, immutable nature of an animal. If that sounds too high-minded, though, there’s also chimp-on-human breast-feeding. Everybody wins!
