Animal Kingdom
Tags: comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, boring, violence, romantic, tragedy, revenge

Plot synopsis:
After his mother overdoses, 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody (James Frecheville) asks his estranged grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody (Jacki Weaver), for help, and she invites him to move in with her. Smurf is the affectionate matriarch of a Melbourne crime family that uses her home as a base. Her home is also being watched by cops who are looking for the oldest son, Andrew "Pope" Cody (Ben Mendelsohn), who is in hiding. The volatile middle brother, Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), deals drugs successfully enough to have bought the house for his mother. The youngest brother, Darren (Luke Ford), follows the lead of his siblings, while family friend "Baz" leads the gang, which specializes in armed robbery.
Craig takes J along to meet with a crooked cop from the drug squad, who tells him that renegade cops on the armed robbery squad are on the look out for all of them. Later, Baz goes to meet Pope at a shopping centre, where they discuss quitting crime and going straight. As Baz gets in his car to leave, police approach and kill him. Angry, Pope and Craig want revenge, and ask J to steal a Commodore and bring it to Darren's place. The car is then planted in the middle of a street. Two policemen are soon drawn to the scene, where they are ambushed and killed. The next day, Pope, Darren and J are taken in for questioning, where J meets Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan Leckie who also leads the armed robbery squad. Leckie, one of the few non-corrupt police officers, recognizes J's predicament and begins to lean on him. The three are later released from custody, but J returns with his girlfriend Nicky to her parents' home.
Craig, who has avoided being picked up by the police, Pope, Darren and Smurf meet at a diner, where they recognize J as the weak link. When told by Smurf to give himself up for questioning, Craig panics, and meets a friend in rural Bendigo. He learns that the house is already being monitored, and as the police arrive tries to flee through a field but is gunned down. Pope and Darren take J to meet their solicitor Ezra. He coaches him to not tell the police anything and pressure him to break up with Nicky, which he does. Leckie takes J into custody again, where he proposes that J be moved to witness protection, but J turns down the offer. Meanwhile, Nicky, unsure what to do, shows up at Smurf's home, where Pope gives her heroin, questions her, then smothers her to death to keep her silent.
When J returns to Smurf's house the next morning he discovers Nicky's bracelet outside the house. He calls Nicky's phone, and realising something is not right, flees to Nicky's parents house. Pope gets Nicky's address from Darren and arrives in time to intercept J. J flees on foot and is taken into a safe house. With Craig and Baz dead, Pope and Darren imprisoned, and J potentially being the star witness for the prosecution, Smurf decides, "J needs to go". Smurf uses her connections to procure J's address, and persuades the corrupt cop to help her. Police from the drug squad then raid the safe house. J jumps a fence and returns to Smurf's house, saying he wishes to help free Pope and Darren from jail. To do this, the family's barrister then coaches J's answers.
After his day in court, Leckie sees J before his departure from the safe hotel, and asks him if he has found his place in the world (a reference to Leckie's animal kingdom metaphor for J's predicament). Pope, Darren and Smurf celebrate with champagne while being interviewed after their controversial acquittal. Smurf later sees Leckie in the supermarket and taunts him. Later again, J returns to Smurf's home asking to stay, before going to his room. Pope enters and begins to talk to him, but is cut off when J shoots him in the head. In the final scene, J returns to the living room and embraces a now silenced Smurf.

Review: 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.
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.
Then, like the final dose of a patriotic inoculation to my anti-Oz entertainment views of old, comes first-timer David Michod's Sundance winning Animal Kingdom, gaining my first five-star rating for the year.With nary a flaw to be found, this crime-drama unfolds at a terrifically slow-burning yet somehow exhilarating pace.
The ambitious movie-making and successful result is even more remarkable when you consider that Michod never resorts to gratuitousness (with violence or sex) or over-the-top, colourful personalities – fallback devices for many modern 'gangster' pictures – instead allowing his immaculately constructed story and deeply invested characters, all of whom share a layered relationship with one another, to sweep us away.Jacki Weaver has received numerous critical plaudits for her unnerving performance as Grandma Smurf – a resourceful, persevering women who'll stop at nothing to protect her boys – and deservedly so; the powerful handle she has on her sons and her willingness to embrace the criminal environment is deeply disturbing and chilling.
Elsewhere youngsters Frecheville and Ford do a commendable job holding their own against such an experienced cast; Stapleton is fascinating as the drug-fuelled middle sibling; adding class and impact as always is international star Pearce whilst the immensely talented Edgerton presents a likable and charismatic alternative as Cody family friend Barry.A triumph of Australian cinema, this could very well be one of our nation's greatest.5 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic).
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.
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).
"Animal Kingdom" is a superior Australian movie about a 17-year-old high school teen named Joshua "J" Cody who suddenly gets captured into a crime-ridden animalistic family filled with bank robbers, drug dealers, and murderers; these predators just happen to be his ferocious uncles and his matriarch, manipulative grandma.
Yet his turning point comes three-quarters of the way in, when he proves himself worthy of the role when he breaks apart in a bathroom with an intimate, solitary crying scene.Animal Kingdom is a powerful film that examines seemingly strong but unstable family ties when caught in a web of deceit and murder.
Though well aware that he is living with a notorious family of criminals, Joshua feels protected and taken care of by his relatives, but when his eldest uncle Andrew returns home after having been in hiding from the police, Joshua realizes the gravity of what it means to be part of this family and what it demands of him.In his directorial debut, David Michôd stylistically and brilliantly directs this well-paced and character-driven family saga about a young man who finds himself entangled in a vital personal conflict when he recognizes that he has to sacrifice his own future in order to maintain his loyalty to his relatives.
This well-written fictional crime drama which examines themes such as family relations, loyalty, coming-of-age, survival, crime and love, has a rigorous narrative structure and draws a multifaceted portrayal of a heartless and vicious family which is headed by the conniving Justine Cody aka "Smurf".The shaded and aesthetic cinematography by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw and the distinct use of sound reinforces the ominous and austere atmosphere in this incisive and internal study of character, which provides a gripping depiction of the protagonist's relationship with a seasoned local detective.
This memorable Australian production is a dark psychological thriller with a fine score by Antony Partos, Sam Petty and David McCormack and substantial acting performances by Australian actress Jacki Weaver, Australian actors Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton, Sullivan Stapleton and James Frecheville in his debut feature film role.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The matriarch of the family too will bring to mind a well known identity to Australians who live in the city where this is set...Melbourne, Australia.The plot concerns what happens to a lad - not yet 18 - who has his mother and sole parent die...he moves in with his grandmother, who happens to be the overly-affectionate mother of small time criminals who deal with corrupt police officers.Cast is uniformly excellent...James Frecheville as the orphan Joshua 'J' Cody is suitably expressionless throughout the movie.
It actually stood for "Special Operations Group".The use of music is effective in this movie...apart from some good cheesy songs, it has minimalist synthesiser music to create an air of dread.Not sure if the final scene in this movie has its real life counterpart, but it did bring a strangely satisfying sense of "closure" to the proceedings.This film has been in our top 10 at the box office for a while now and has done respectably for an Australian movie.You should see it.
"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).
Animal Kingdom another Australian film with a passive protagonist, lots of padding, a great soundtrack, a title that tells you nothing about what the film is about and lots of pretension.Look I'm not wanting to be the one review who suggests that this isn't the greatest Australian film of all time but lets face it the film has some serious flaws.The narrative is pretty uninspiring, the performance by the lead actor is pretty dry and gives us little to invest in and the visual design is very deeply in love with itself.What's right with it: Its better than the average Australian film released at the box office.What's wrong with it: Everything I have mentioned above.Where to find it: DVD stores online and just about everywhere else..
He calls his grandmother, Janine, played by Jacki Weaver, and is deceptively welcomed with open-arms to live with her and his four uncles, all of whom are born and bred criminals."Animal Kingdom" has been labeled as a crime movie, but it's much more than that.
Joel Edgerton plays one of the brothers contemplating a future in the stock market as a means of escaping the violent and in his view, unsustainable underworld life that has put both his life and that of his family at risk, while former "Henderson Kid" Mendelsohn continues his dark ride following "Love My Way" as the volatile and unbalanced brother Pope.There's myriad doco's shown on Australian TV that dissect the events depicted in this film, and each of them would be more entertaining and coherent than this picture.
Animal Kingdom is a fascinating Crime Story of a family involved in a high profile robbery (the movie loosely depict the true events happened in 1988 "Walsh Street police shootings"Melbourne, Australia).
Their problems are all made by themselves, and it grows less complex for them morally- and only more and more for the one we see the story mostly through, J (James Frecheville)- as crimes mount and paranoia and police pressure continues.The air of this movie is thick with a kind of collective fear of the characters, hidden mostly by their criminal pride (as J notes in his narration, they know they're doomed as soon as they get into it), which adds a whole level of intensity to the main performances.
He can't rise to the standard that's set by actors like Guy Pearce and especially Weaver, though the latter gives a Oscar-worthy performance, if that means anything.But his acting being a flaw should not take away from what is so amazing about Animal Kingdom.
(Only Jacki Weaver's Smurf is allowed much in the way of coherent motivation; the only other female character of note, Laura Wheelwright's Nicky, feels entirely like a plot point rather than an actual person.) On the other hand, the dialogue is lively and original for the first two-thirds of the film (although it begins to noticeably degrade thereafter) and some of the performances are stellar: Jacki Weaver in particular stands out.
Its tone is cool and minimalist, its characters are flawed and not particularly intelligent or charismatic, its scenes embody everyday mundanity, yet the film draws you into its story of a 17-year-old youth joining his criminal uncles.The strength of the film rests on its avoidance of presenting ultra intelligent criminals, like in The Town or Takers, who perform superhuman feats outsmarting sophisticated digital systems, fighting martial artist cops, and escaping by driving against speeding traffic.
It's not a big plot twist in the traditional sense, but it nevertheless serves the same purpose as one, energizing the film while surprising the audience.Thus it's Jacki Weaver, as the mother, who raises "Animal Kingdom" a notch above the standard issue crime thriller.
It says more about these people's life and mind than about what makes a film good.In the brilliant crime drama Animal Kingdom there is some shooting, but nothing unnecessary or with very cruel pictures.
"Crooks always come undone, always, one way or another" – Joshua CodyUnwilling to glamorize predatory criminals as in other well-known crime films, David Michod's gritty Animal Kingdom portrays an Australian family of drug dealers and bank robbers as they are, disturbed sociopaths without a trace of conscience.
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this low-key thriller is a crime drama, a psychological case study, and a coming of age story about a young boy trying to get through his teenage years without being scarred for life by the people around him, none of whom he can trust.
James Frecheville, an unknown even to Australian audiences, is also strong as Josh – although his character has little in terms of range of emotion, Frecheville manages to hold his own and keep the story anchored in the face of the films more grandiose performances (and the same can be said of Pearce's level-headed Sergeant Leckie).After taking home the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Animal Kingdom promises' to be one of the few Australian films to receive distribution around the world.
The film's protagonist is Josh, played extremely well by James Frecheville, a somewhat relatable quiet, introverted teenage boy who must live with his extended family of criminals after his mother overdosed.
At this point I feel that I shouldn't explain anymore about the story with details because what I think made this such a fantastic movie was how shocked and disturbed while also being so fascinated watching this crime story unfold before my eyes.The writing and directing of this film, both done by David Michôd, are equally brilliant.
Animal Kingdom is a very confidence, well made debut by David Michôd, a gritty, realistic film set in the Melbourne underworld.Joshua, AKA J (James Frecheville), is a 17-year-old man whom mum has just died of an heroin overdose.
J is slowly brought into the family's criminal activities, but a senior police detective, Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) believes he could turn the young man after the shooting of two uniformed officers.What makes Animal Kingdom work is it gritty, down to Earth nature of the film.
Michôd made a slow burning film where everything unfolds gradually; it was a film about characters, particularly J and about a dysfunctional family.The acting is great, it is really nature that you end up feeling like you are watching real people, not just actors.
As the film unfolds, slowly we begin to see how terrifying these people (animals) really are, even the most innocent looking ones: the figure of the mother, Smurf, played by Jacki Weaver is one of the scariest creation I've seen in a long time.
Considering I have watched the American TV series, the movie moved a bit fast, grandma surf in the Aussie film didn't seem to have a handle on the situation, killing off Bad from the start, you don't really get a sense of the depth of their crimes, Elene Barkin plays a better Smurf, she controls those boys.
It is here Josh – or J as he is known – sees a side of life that he was previously shielded from.The parallels between this film and The Town are a little unavoidable, both focus on small groups of people for which crime is a way of life, but where The Town showed all the heists and robberies in their full glory and added some convenient plot twists and developments, Animal Kingdom plays it straight as a die and doesn't even pretend to include any glamorous aspects.Although we hear first hand that Josh's cousins have been particularly naughty boys we meet Craig, Darren, Andrew and family friend Barry at a time when they are lying especially low.
Animal Kingdom (2010)*** (out of 4) Interesting crime-drama from Australia about a 17-year-old boy named J (James Frecheville) who moves in with his grandmother (Jacki Weaver) and uncles after his mother dies from a heroin overdose.
"Loosely" based on the Walsh St, Melbourne, police murders case of 1988, the focus is on Josh (James Frecheville), a younger member of a family of career criminals specializing in armed robbery who as the movie opens has not yet turned to a life of crime.
Things hot up after corrupt police execute on of their associates in a shopping centre car park and the gang retaliates by killing at random a couple of patrolling police the next day.Enter Guy Pearce (with silly moustache) in the unlikely role of an honest cop, anxious to prevent Josh going the way of his uncles Pope (a psychopathic Ben Mendelsohn), Craig (a drug-addled Sullivan Stapleton) and Darren (Luke Ford), a general purpose gangster who just does what he is told.This is a finely told but in the end a rather depressing tale.
"Animal Kingdom" is a movie which shows us a seventeen year old child who is trying to survive from his criminal family in which he necessarily entered when his mother died from overdose of drugs.Guy Pearce who played as Detective Senior Sgt Nathan Leckie makes a really good interpretation as the good guy who is trying to save this child (Joshua 'J' Cody) from his criminal family.
Based on a true story, "Animal Kingdom" is a gritty, gripping crime-family saga set in Melbourne, Australia.Josh Cody is just seventeen when his mother dies of a heroin overdose, leaving him an orphan.
A cop named Leckie (Guy Pearce) is quick to latch onto J to see if he will help them bring down the crime family because he knows the dangers that J and his girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright) are in.Animal Kingdom, directed by David Michôd, carries a sense of nostalgia for Australian cinema.