Reino Animal

"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.

Director David Michod should be congratulated for his intelligent, quiet control over this strongly scripted, well-acted, distinctly Australian movie. All the parts came together with originality, which is not an easy task, especially with crime stories; but this one delves into the families & minds of criminals avoiding blatant stereotypes so often thrust upon the viewer. All the actors are perfectly cast and fine actors. Jacki Weaver, you nailed Smurf and Guy Pearce has become this wonderful chameleon & consummate actor who continues to surprise with his range. This is your first feature, David Michod, well I'm certainly looking forward to your second.

The backdrop to this movie is Melbourne, Australia in the mid-1980's, which (according to the director) had one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the world. At the time, there were several deaths in Melbourne in which wanted and suspected criminals were killed by the police under suspicious circumstances. These killings in turn supposedly ignited a slew of retaliatory murders perpetrated on police officers (cf. the "Walsh Street" police shootings).

This is a movie about a young man (Josh or "J," played by James Frecheville) whose extended family are all criminals. Using the character of seventeen-year-old J as a sort of catalyst, the movie explores a variety of crime-related issues, from the effects of growing up in a world where criminal activity is the norm, to the escalation of crime that is a natural consequence of vigilantism (especially when the vigilantes are police).

The characters are all played very well, with exceptionally good performances given by Ben Mendelsohn, Jackie Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and young James Frecheville in his debut as J.

While "Animal Kingdom" starts slowly (perhaps -too- slowly for some), it continually builds in intensity throughout the entire movie, culminating with an ending that is both shocking and yet inevitable. In particular, the movie has a very compelling scene played perfectly by Mendelsohn, with an awesome supporting role played by Luke Ford - I'm sure this scene repulsed many in the audience (it certainly repulsed me). At first, I feared that the scene was added by the director merely as a gratuitous exploitation of the audience's emotions. However, as the movie progresses, the scene's outcome becomes an integral part of the plot development, and is therefore necessary for the completion of the main story.

This movie will not be for everybody - the subject matter and the honest way in which the movie portrays it made the movie somewhat taxing at times to sit through. However, I think those willing to consider the necessity of telling the story of "Animal Kingdom" will find the movie entertaining and thought-provoking - I certainly did.

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 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.