Animal Kingdom is a 2010 crime movie debut of David Michod which has won the World Cinema Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. The movie was inspired by the 1988 Walsh Street police shootings. Jackie Weaving has been nominated for an AFI (Australian Film Institute) award for her performance and is tipped for an Oscar for supporting actor!
Plot
We meet seventeen year old Joshua 'J' Cody (played by first time actor James Frecheville), sitting on the couch, watching television next to the body of his mother who has just died from a heroin overdose. Once the paramedics arrive and take her away, Josh reluctantly contacts his grandmother Janine 'Smurf' Cody (played chillingly by Jacki Weaver). Soon Josh is taken into Janine’s Melbourne-based criminal family that consists of her sons: armed robber Andrew "Pope"(played by Ben Mendelsohn), drug dealer Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) and Darren Cody (played by Luke Ford). Soon Andrew and his bank robbing partner Barry 'Baz' Brown (played by Joel Edgerton) are grooming young Josh as an apprentice, all the while with Melbourne's Armed Robbery Squad and Homicide Detective Senior Segeant Nathan Leckie (played by Guy Pearce) gunning for Pope and trying its hardest for Josh not to get caught up in this Animal Kingdom..............................
Review
Unlike The Town and other crime-genre films, we are not made privy to any of the bank robberies performed by the lead criminals. The film instead specifically targets its focus on the inner-workings and social hierarchy of a criminal family which is governed by its matriarch.
The acting is fantastic, especially Ben Mendelsohn, who was so wonderful in last year’s Beautiful Kate. The career criminals seem at odds with progressing society, being comfortable doing what they know best: their trade of robbing banks. Their ashen, still faces chillingly hide their emotions like expert poker players. We never feel at ease around them as we have no idea what they are capable of at any given moment. For this reason Guy Pearce’s character is refreshing when he is on screen, as he shines a light of honour and goodness. However he is quickly missed when he is gone!
The film has an air of unease and dread throughout as we empathise with Josh, who is caught right in the middle of his criminal family who are all that he has left, and the police who are tugging at his conscious, appearing to care for his well-being, but maybe only because it suits their immediate needs. Like The Town, we see that the criminal hierarchy is balanced in a way that any disruption caused to it will result in severe consequences as the order is re-established for the kingdom to continue its survival.
Rating
This is a fantastic film that does exactly what it sets out to do. The actors give a tour-de-force in their performances, with special note to Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver, as we have never seen them as these types of characters before. James Frecheville has enjoyed a solid introduction to Australian film, and I hope that his future goes from strength-to-strength from here.
Ultimately, I did not enjoy the film as I found it un-enjoyable. It keeps you anxiously on the edge of your seat, and the tense ambiance is nauseating. Of course this is subjective bias as to what an individual took from a movie, so I highly recommend seeing it, although it is not one to check out on date night.
A very unsettling but strong 3.5 criminal brothers out of 5.
Check out what Margaret and David have to say, have a look at an interview, and check out the trailer.
Luke McWilliams November 2010
