Animal Kingdom

I don't know what it is about Australian cinema and filmmakers these past 15 years, but they are just getting better and better. OK, so we here in the Northern Hemisphere don't necessarily get to see the dross. Granted. But what we do see shows that there's talent galore down under. There are, of course, talented actors, writers, cinematographers and directors around the world, but at the moment Australia seems to have found its own voice, its own style which is not just unique, but interesting, accomplished and gripping.

Unlike so much high-energy Hollywood dreck, Animal Kingdom relies on a good script, a gripping story, good acting, solid characterisation and great directing. There is no gratuitous flashiness to cover up bald patches. This particular film's style is minimalist, the camera hand-held (as far as I can see) throughout. But that doesn't lead to tricksy artiness.

It allows the actors to act - it's what they do best after all - with none of them falling back onto the schtick they are always hired for - Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise, you get the picture. All I can say is if you get the chance to catch this, catch it. Oh, and keep making them, Australia.

"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.

After his mother dies, 17 year old J comes to live with his estranged grandmother and uncles, a family of felons. He enters the animal kingdom of suburban crime and stumbles through a minefield of sociopaths, cops and lawyers, all claiming to protect him. J soon learns though that trust means nothing when people are desperate.

This is a dramatic, well-made film that haunts the mind. Highly cinematic, meticulously crafted, thrilling and poignant in equal measure. The director emphasises realistic dialogue, multi-dimensional characters and underplays violence. Still, the film is palpably tense, there are scenes that will leave you shaking, even where there is no bloody payoff. As the body count builds even a car slowly reversing down a driveway becomes a menacing sight. The ending is satisfying.

The film is very well acted, young Frecheville keeps it natural and holds his own amongst titanic performances from veteran Aussies. Mendelsohn as Uncle Pope is particularly brilliant, dressed at Christmas from Lowes, this dorky suburban thug bullies the weak (including his passive younger brother Darren, unhappily entrenched in a life he cannot escape from), and who's confrontational behaviour springs from a deep well of paranoia. His maladjusted moral compass so skewed he frequently crosses into psychopathic territory. And yet he remains all too human, he's a mundane monster. Weaver too, leaves a memorable impression, where revelations abound in the film's third act.

My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen a courtroom scene that is left to the imagination, we see corrupt police in action, why not a demonstration of hypocrisy in the justice system too? But this is a minor whinge in the grand scale of this ambitious story.

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.

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!