Animal Kingdom

Greetings again from the darkness. An Australian movie that packs a wallop! Writer/Director David Michod delivers an unsettling look into one family's life of crime and corresponding order of things - the circle of life in the Animal Kingdom. Supposedly based on a true story, this is a tough family that you would not want as neighbors. These aren't Scorcese's smooth operators from "Casino" or "Goodfellas". No, these guys are worse.

The matriarch is played chillingly by Jacki Weaver. She is mother or grandmother to the guys (except for one outsider) in the band of crooks. While she messes with your mind through the story, it's not until the final 15 minutes when she really kicks it up a notch and becomes flat out frightening in her power.

There are only a couple of actors that most people would recognize. Joel Edgerton plays the outsider in the group, and the one trying to go straight by playing the stock market with his "earnings". The other is Guy Pearce, who plays the detective trying to both solve the cases and rescue young Josh, played by newcomer James Frecheville.

Not only is this the type of story that sucks you in, it is a reminder of just how distracting movie stars can be a to film. The lack of stars allows us to really be absorbed into this family, or better, this world of crime, deceit, corruption and paranoia. There is not a single superstar who appears - one who can capitalize on his film history of characters and immediately generate recognition. Here, the viewer must get to know an entire family for who and what they are. This is powerful stuff for a film lover.

The winner for best psychopath is Ben Mendelsohn as Pope. His dead eyes will scare you. His demeanor will scare you. His actions will disgust you. There are two lines in the film that help us make sense of what occurs. Early on, the narrator tells us that "all crooks come undone" at some point. Later, the detective (Pearce) tells us that in the Animal Kingdom, you are either weak or strong. The lines seems pretty clear.

The focus of the film is on Josh (Frecheville) who gets plopped into this family of criminals after his mom dies of an overdose and he calls his grandmother (Weaver). Josh spends the rest of the film trying to blend in while staying clean. Of course, even his stoic mask doesn't save him from the path of destruction created by Pope.

In the end, the film is about survival, adaptation and defining what really defines strong and weak, good and bad. If you enjoy powerful crime thrillers, this one is worth checking out ... and be appreciative for the lack of Hollywood star power. That's part of why it works!

One of those movies that grabs you from the excellent opening credits as the camera pans over security camera stills of a gang of Melbourne thugs robbing banks. The audience, which was rustling noisy junk food through the previews, fell silent very quickly.

Jackie Weaver as the Matriarch of this crime family was amazing.

It felt a little "talkie" until about half way through, but there is tension right from the beginning that carries you through. Every character is connected to every other as if by springs quivering with tension or compression and the movie really delivers holding the resolution to the final frame where everything shifts into a new alignment.

I really enjoyed Animal Kingdom, it does not glamorize the life of these crims the way Underbelly or Sopranos does, and the cops reflect the dirty history of the Melbourne's finest too (Guy Pearce reprising his role in LA Confidential as a rare Mr Clean). Overall I think David Simon (The Wire) would approve of Animal Kingdom.

Anyone who has wondered how murderers can be loved by their Moms (isn't that most everyone?) should see this movie, it isn't a TV experience it really works well on the big screen.

"Animal Kingdom" is a highly respected Australian film that's apparently received a HUGE number of nominations for the Australian Film Awards--as well as an Oscar nomination for Jacki Weaver (as the matriarch of the family--who did a great job playing pure evil). And, I must say that technically speaking, it is a very good film. However, I must also say that it's a thoroughly unpleasant film that really had no payoff by the end. In many ways, it reminds me of "Winter's Bone"--though I think "Winter's Bone" handles similar material in a better and much more satisfying way.

The film centers on Josh (James Frecheville)--a very quiet and introverted young man who comes from an incredibly sick and twisted family. The film begins with his mother overdosing from drugs and he moves in with his grandmother and his uncles--and this new home is MUCH more destructive and sick! The uncles all sell drugs and are very violent men--and eventually the police home in on these sick folks and then things get REALLY crazy. I could say a lot more, but I don't want to ruin the suspense.

While I like films that fight against convention and formula, I had a problem with this film that you perhaps might not. I wanted all this sickness and dysfunction to somehow work out for the good and for there to be SOME sense of meaning. Instead, the ending just reinforced the complete lack of meaning and left me very cold. Well made but VERY depressing and unsatisfying--it's hard to like a movie where you really don't like anyone.

Animal Kingdom is the extremely impressive debut from director David Michôd. Reminiscent of Andrew Dominik's Chopper (2000) in its authentic portrayal of Australia's underworld the film shows inner city Melbourne in all of its warts and all actuality a place where boredom leads to thrill seeking, drug taking and crime. If you were under the impression that a movie about a doomed crime family is going to be a cliché ridden washout then think again. Meticulous acting, thrilling set pieces and a gripping intelligent script combine to make Animal Kingdom one of the most original and realistic crime films in recent memory.

Animal Kingdom opens with 18 year old Joshua 'Jay' Cody (James Frecheville) sitting in the living room of his suburban Melbourne home watching television. As Jay blankly stares at a game show on TV his mother sits beside him dying of a massive heroin overdose. Given his bizarrely muted response to the situation and the later news that his mother has died it is apparent that the teenager's life has not even closely resembled normality. However, when he gets back in touch with his estranged family Jay's life disintegrates further as he is drawn into their nightmarish world of crime, violence and death. Through all of the adversity he faces the battle to live a normal and peaceful life proves to be the most difficult of all.

Surprisingly for a film which spends a lot of its time showing the relatively mundane suburban streets and houses of Melbourne Animal Kingdom also contains some astonishingly artistic camera-work. As Janine Cody (Jacki Weaver) embraces her newly recaptured grandson the camera draws in on a kitsch brass plate detailing a jungle inhabited by a pride of lions. As the scene transforms into a series of grainy CCTV stills of masked gunman operatic arias pour forth creating a terrifyingly beautiful montage. The overwhelming sense is that of almost immediately being drawn into an atmosphere of pure malevolence. Not since Malcolm McDowell's devilish Alex smirked down the camera lens in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange has a film opened with such diabolical intent. However, unlike Kubrick's 1971 masterpiece Animal Kingdom is contained within a wholly realistic world and is all the more powerful for it.

From the outside the Codys appear to be like any other working-class family. In one early sequence Craig charges around the house shouting about the family dog whilst Jay's voice-over narrates each of their personality traits and criminal involvement. This scene also uncovers one of film's major themes that evil is inescapable and lurks beneath the surface of almost every facet of life. Never was this truer than in case of the Cody boy's mother and matriarch of the family Janine who defends her sons to the bitter end. Janine's stance links back to the film's title the instinctive law of the jungle or Animal Kingdom where a mother will do all she can to protect her young. Jacki Weaver gives an Oscar nominated performance which keeps us guessing whether she is woefully misguided or ruthlessly evil. Whatever the case may be Janine is terrifying in her certainty. The horrendous decree she makes half way through the film is one of the most shocking cinematic twists you are likely to see this year.

Mention must also be made of Ben Mendelsohn whose portrayal of Andrew "Pope" Cody is one of the most convincing and terrifying psychopaths since Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth. Totally impulsive and thoroughly deranged it is impossible for the audience to take their eyes off Pope as we witness a thousand and one sick thoughts running through his mind.

Guy Pearce, whose career is going from strength to strength coming off his portrayal of a self-indulgent Edward VIII in The King's Speech, is the moral conscious of film as Detective Leckie who attempts to advise Jay. In a world of corrupt police and lawyers no one can be trusted an intense feeling of claustrophobia encircles Jay as he is given the impossible task of having to navigate the legal system whilst trying to escape from his own family.

For all of the immorality on display Animal Kingdom is an intensely moral film. Jay's narration informs us that his uncles were all frightened even if they did not show it and that "crooks always come undone… always." This morality is extremely ambiguous and opens up a number of questions regarding trust and family loyalty. Whilst there is something grand and Shakespearean in this tale of a doomed family the film remains firmed rooted in the reality of 21st Century Melbourne. Animal Kingdom is original, mesmerising and thoroughly deserving of all the lofty praise that has been heaped upon it.

ANIMAL KINGDOM is another slice of gruelling nastiness that comes to us courtesy of our Australian cousins. It's not quite as downbeat and depressing as SNOWTOWN, although it gets close at times. This elaborate thriller is about a sprawling family of ne'er-do-wells and no-good criminals and what happens when a young and innocent relation is brought into the fold.

It's not really the narrative that's important here, although there are a number of fresh situations and off-hand moments that make it stand out (that opener is a real clincher). It works best when delivering a series of shocks and sudden twists that the viewer certainly doesn't see coming. No, it's the characterisation where ANIMAL KINGDOM really shines; this is a film for actors, showcasing a number of realistic performances from the cast.

Ben Mendelsohn is the one who really stands out in his star-making turn as the thoroughly creepy guy at the top of the chain, while Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton bring depth to their otherwise thuggish roles. James Frecheville plays it quiet and understated as the lead although the reliable Guy Pearce shines as a cop. Jacki Weaver may play one of the most understated and nasty characters ever. It's a decent film, certainly more compelling than most things Hollywood put out these days.