It’s time for simians to shine.

The other day I saw what I thought was a Margiela monkey fur coat at Barneys — but it was goat fur. Nonetheless, it looked like monkey fur. Shaggy monkey fur outerwear has been present nearly everywhere and if you look at Beyonce‘s new album cover and her “Run this World” video then you will see her wearing furry things (PETA is definitely not happy with that). Whether or not it is monkey fur is left up to argument, but I would like to think it is so it can fulfill the third point in my zeitgeist study.

Then there’s Project Nim which opens in select San Francisco Bay Area theaters on July 15. Directed by James Marsh and the Oscar-winning peeps that brought us Man on a Wire is an insightful documentary about the journey of Nim a lovable chimpanzee — but this isn’t necessarily a Curious George type of story. In the ’70s Nim was raised and nurtured as a human child. He taught how to communicate via sign language with his “family” and then moved to a more “scientific” environment and then to an even MORE scientific environment. The documentary is an unsettling, insightful, and sentimental look at a chimpanzee’s life. It’s definitely a documentary to make you feel like you are watching something of substance…and to make you feel cultured and smart.

On the flipside of that is Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Any movie that has a title that uses the same preposition twice and stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, and Tom Felton is probably worth your time. I mean, who doesn’t like disgruntled simians on a rampage?