Animal Kingdom (2010)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

Loved this film. Just didn't understand, if the cops were closely watching Baz (prior to murdering him), how they didn't see Pope (who they were said to really want above anyone) who was with him at the time. Also, It was too obvious J's girl going to the house after they'd split. It didn't need that as a tipping point for J, although it did set up the finale. Nit-picking I know, but it irked me. Otherwise a surprisingly intelligent, taught, and suspenseful thriller. Even though the characterisation was obvious, it worked to move the film along. I was glad it didn't fall into cliché with J looking up the the detective as a father figure. Acting was the stand-out feature. Excellent throughout the cast. Glad I found this gem.

A disaffected young man makes a fateful phone call when he discovers his mother dead on the living room sofa after an overdose.This compelling tale of the unraveling of a notorious crime family centers on Joshua, a nephew and apprentice brought into the fold after his mother's demise, despite her stated intentions to isolate and protect him from her mother and siblings. We soon realise why - the brothers are armed robbers, supported by their over-affectionate mother Janine (a creepily effective Jacki Weaver), currently lying low while the cops look for Pope, the leader of the group.Pope's menace is gradually built by keeping him off-screen for most of the opening. Ben Mendelsohn as Pope gives a performance that lives up to the billing, mixing calm deadliness with explosive rage. He kills by instinct and feels no remorse, the character who most embodies the film's title. When he turns on Joshua, this provides the main narrative line that reaches a shocking but merited conclusion.The camera stays close to the characters and the dialogue is fractured and in the vernacular. This makes it all the more gritty and real. James Frecheville as Joshua is our guide through this world, an unresponsive drone most of the time, till he is compelled to take charge by the threat to his own life and the inability of the authorities to protect him. One genre strand here is the worm that turned. Frecheville is stunning as the taciturn, immature young man who has to learn and grow up quickly in a hostile world.For a crime drama about a violent family the film admirably does not linger on the gun violence. One key turning point, the (alleged) murder of a family intimate by the cops, is rendered through a reaction shot with Pope. The revenge killing of policemen is shown in long shot through silhouettes. The drama avoids schlock violence to stay with the characters and their motivations, and is all the better for it.The cheap, tasteless interiors, scrubby front yards, daggy fashions, head-bumping masculinity and authentic Aussie accents reminded me of Snowtown, another film about violent men in anonymous Australian suburbs. Is this an emerging Aussie aesthetic? If so, I for one would like to see more.

Everything that happens in this film is wrong. 1) The one good brother that wants to exit his family's life of crime is MURDERED by cops in a grocery store parking lot, which leads the other brothers to exact revenge on them. Now, if you're going to base a film on the investigation of these 2 cops' murders, you have to make me want to see the killers brought to justice. The motivation isn't there because you feel that the cops should've rightly been killed. 2)When the paranoid uncle sees the cops coming for him, he does the absolutely most illogical thing he could think of: grab his shotgun and run directly into a wide open field where he is subsequently shot and killed. All he had to do was nothing and he would've be aquitted of the crime just like his other 2 brothers. 3)The girlfriend goes to the lead's house and doesn't even confront the uncles about having the boy break up with her. Why the hell did you go over there then?!4) The lead runs from a cop who blatantly tries to kill him while in witness protection, and he doesn't go straight to Guy Pierce, the ONE GUY who wants to help him and tell him about it?5)While being transported to trial, a cop directly points his gun at the lead and dry fires it for NO REASON. I shouldn't have to go into why this shouldn't have happened. 6)The lead undermines the police's entire investigation to get his uncle's off, which makes you not care about him AT ALL anymore, or his scumbag family. He did it to murder his eldest uncle himself, and then embraces his grandmother lovingly who, for the previous 15 minutes, was trying her damnedest to have him killed. He also chose to spare his gay(?) uncle, who was also complicit in his girlfriend's murder! He just sat there and watched it happen!I really could go on but i'm nearing the 1k word limit and I think you get the point.I really wanted to enjoy this movie going in; it's competently shot, the actors are good (besides the dry performance by the lead), cinematically it is top notch. But everything that happens in it is wrong, and it infuriated me to the point where I had to write this review about it.