SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

mitchikus I came across animal kingdom via the American series, I have not watched the American series yet, purposely because on checking the reviews i discovered the original title film.I much prefer to check out the origins of TV series first especially if there is a book or film.Man was I disappointed! I turned off at 60 minutes because its shallow uninteresting and daft.My only hope now is the TV series or I fear much like I have in the past wasted my evening on Australian trash.I really would like one day to watch an Australian film that is at least good but they are awful actors seriously awful the best film inever remember watching was memoir and again same actor etc Australia seem to have a handful of actors and I'm not hating please believe me, I've travelled Australia and tbh what a boring bunch they are in real life too.I watch all genres all languages (subtitles really help make a film come alive for me) but this is another poopoo.I have it a 3/10 because it held me for an hour whilst I ate my vegetable Biriani,which was fantastic if I do say so myself.Poo.

sharky_55 It begins with the dulcet tones of Andrew O'Keefe's afternoon Deal or No Deal and a mother's heroin overdose. Joshua 'J' Cody sits blinking, almost unaware as the paramedics take her away. We're not sure if he is reacting to the death or is his gaze is focused on the television. Some criticism has been leveraged towards James Frecheville's performance as blank and unaffected by the chaos around him, and I suppose that there may be some truth in that. But to really understand this character you need to have met him. I have met a few Js in my time; they flit around the school system without so much as a word, and you could very well blow their mother's head off next to them and have the stony face not move an inch. They are barely of age and yet already covered by layers of learned masculinity that prevents any overt emotional reaction (and when he finally cries, it is with full-bodied shudders and snot). The brief, morose voice-over confirms as much - the Cody way of life is not so much different from what he has faced growing up his whole life. In David Michod's Animal Kingdom he is not simply thrust into the world of crime like many of these stories tend to do. He finds the Codys in a period of transition, where people are trying to change and leave for a better life. Their reasoning is that they can no longer live of life of constant surveillance and hiding, that at some point the certain thrills and riches of the criminal lifestyle cannot make up for the vice grip on their freedom and peace of mind. Baz has a wife and kid, and 20k that has become 60 in the stock market - future prospects. Edgerton has that Hollywood look about him, and seems more adjusted to civilian life than the Cody brothers could ever be. On some level, he has an assurance that they cannot afford. J also has this briefly, although he is haunted by the actions of his family throughout his stay at Nicole's. He drones out of the 'normal' family dinner, the shot rack focusing to the fate of the two policemen he helped lure to their deaths. It's a strange environment that Michod has created. It's not exactly the grim underbelly of the crime world, although Arkapaw has siphoned away its colour all the same. Australia does not have the same gun culture that these crime stories usually have, but the characters have no troubles with access there. A morbidly humorous scene shows this, with the masculine bravado of road-rage (not even that) being swiftly dispelled by the sight of a gun. The most intriguing aspect of the film, apart from the uniformly excellent performances, is the soundtrack. Partos knows exactly when to hold back here, so the viewer has time and head-space to be able to make their own judgements instead of being drowned out by the emotions of the score. He makes the silent cop killings chilling. He knows how to compress the Cody family with a cacophony of droning and buzzing as the investigators close in on them. And he knows how to magnify a moment in the slow motion, to show a monster sitting in his domain, or a house succumb to a SWAT raid like it us merely another Tuesday. These moments take on a dream-like quality, filtered through J's perspective until we are not sure what is really happening or who to trust. Would cops really shoot him in the vehicle? There is a brilliant moment when cops orchestrate a drug raid on the safe house that J stays in, also being guard by cops. The moral line has long been blurred that a police vest no longer holds any meaning. Ben Mendelsohn's Pope reminds me of (and looks a little like) Gary Oldman's Stansfield, both a quick trigger from exploding into a furious rage. But while Oldman was constantly on edge and trembling through his skin, Mendelsohn is dishevelled in a rat-like manner. You can see the weariness in his eyes and the lines in his face, and while his brothers panic, he simmers. Because he lacks this ability the character is more dangerous for it, and we feel threat from all corners, particularly as he leers over Nicole, and with a few simple words, bores into the innocent consciousness of J. The standout, however, is Jacki Weaver's Smurf, the mother hen of the nest. Unlike Pope, she never breaks character even once, reserving the same twisted smile and coo for her sons and cops alike. Her tendrils are wrapped tightly around her family, roping them in through motherly affection with incestuous tones. Weaver has a matter-of-fact delivery in her voice, never under any illusions about what she has brought into the world and how she will go about protecting them - even to the extent of throwing one cub to the vultures to shield the other two. And what Michod has commandeered in this ending is so magnificent that even she does not see it coming. After freely admitting J has been truly lost, she welcomes him back into her den with the belief that he has been neutered. But are we cheering for J as he achieves his vengeance? No, because in a small victory he has lost everything else, and that fresh-faced, solemn boy has replaced by a lion.

kennethraine I was frankly quite surprised after reading all the good reviews, that this film ,in my opinion is not even average. It starts out by implying with stills only, the families history. We witness so called violence [ red spray on glass and a bang] and ill advised, disorganised, retribution without disguise and attempts to cover their own tracks [ mandatory unless you actually like incarceration]One family member who possesses a powerful rifle or shotgun, the acquisition of which the film dwells on, actually runs away and is shot in the back, when he actually out guns them and could have shot half of them with four shots.It finishes up with the most taciturn member of the cast and the worst actor again spraying the camera with red paint in conjunction with a bang, after his girlfriend killed for no reason, presumably to facilitate the final scene. One, yes only one good actor, Guy Pearce, good on you mate but even he's a Brit.

CountZero313 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.