Animal Kingdom

★★★★

(2010)

Australian director David Michod’s debut film puts us firmly under the wing of Smurf (an excellent Jackie Weaver) and her criminal family in the drab suburbs of Melbourne. Through the eyes of the monosyllabic teenager “J” (James Frecheville) we see what it’s like growing up in a family whose arguments are more likely to end up in a bloodbath then in a couple of unreturned phone calls. When J’s uncle Pope (a dead behind the eyes’ Ben Mendolsohn) returns from the lam to stir up the equally violent police force things go from bad to worse and J is faced with a life of crime or a tricky escape.

While new comer Frecheville broods away at the films center we get an amazingly creepy performance from Mendolsohn and a bright (albeit short lived) spark from Joel Eggerton as the good son  but its the calm and calculated Weaver who comes across as the greatest monster of all. A perfectly acted mother goose, bursting with blind pride for her sons no matter what bleak situation is coming for them. Guy Pierce also clocks in another measured performance as cop and family man, Leckie who sees J as the key to solving the grisly murder of 2 policemen.

Michod’s own screenplay crackles along borrowing occasionally from Melville and Scorsese but more often than not forming its own groove as an original dark and thoughtful portrait of a small time crime family. That being said, an obvious point of reference for me was the quite brilliant Down Terrace which effortlessly blended British kitchen sink humor and epic crime saga. Sweeping the AFI awards this year, Animal Kingdom is definitely worth your time and Michod’s career will surely be one to watch.