145) Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom (2010)

Director: David Michôd

Starring: James Frecheville, Ben Mendelsohn, Jacki Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Sullivan Stapleton, Luke Ford, Laura Wheelwright

As an Australian who watches a lot of movies I am well aware that I probably don't do enough to support my local industry. Australian films make up a small percentage of my overall viewing. What is sadder is the fact that having already seen three Australian films this year (Bran Nue Dae, Wake in Fright and Mary & Max) probably puts me well and truly above average. When Animal Kingdom hit the cinemas it was getting big reviews. The critics were raving about it, and not just in Australia. I had the best of intentions to see it at the cinemas, but despite the fact that didn't end up happening I was still determined to see what all the fuss was about.

When Joshua 'J' Cody's (Frecheville) mother dies of a drug overdose, he is forced to get in contact with his grandmother Janine 'Smurf' Cody (Weaver) for a place to live. When he moves in with the matriarch he is introduced to a part of the family that his mother had worked very hard to keep him separate from. J's uncles; 'Pope' (Mendelsohn), Craig (Stapleton) and Darren (Ford) along with their friend Barry Brown (Edgerton) are involved in various criminal activities, primarily armed robbery. The Melbourne Armed Robbery Squad is after Pope, who is in hiding. The standoff between the Armed Robbery Squad and the Cody family escalates, with casualties on both sides, and J stuck in the middle.

Animal Kingdom looks and sounds like an Australian film. You have a respectable cast of talented Aussie actors headlined by Mendelsohn, Weaver, Edgerton and Pearce, in that grungy suburban setting which has replaced the outback as Australian cinemas location of choice over the last decade or so. Everyone speaks with Australian accents and you even have Australian TV shows on in the background. The film even starts with a heroine overdose death (to all those whose response is "Oh great, another morbid, drug-centred Australian film", you just have to persevere through the first 5 minutes). Animal Kingdom looks and sounds like an Australian film, but it is also absolutely brilliant. This film demonstrates that the name of the game is not necessarily to make Australian films that look as Hollywood as possible so audiences don't realise they're watching an Australian film. Animal Kingdom shows through the way that it has been turning heads all over the world that in the international film landscape there is a place for a well made, recognisably Australian film.

It is a really intense film. Early in the movie one of the Cody boys (I won't say which one) is gunned down by police in a scene which really takes you by surprise, partly because you figured that character was going to play a bigger part in the unfolding story and partly because there was just no warning that it was coming. That moment kicks off a sense of unease and unsettlement which continues through the rest of the film. The characters are unpredictable and unreadable which means you rarely have the comfort of being able to predict what comes next.

In looking like an Australian film, Animal Kingdom lacks the slickness and visual stylisation that you expect from more typically Hollywood ventures into the crime and punishment genre. Visually, Animal Kingdom looks like an everyday, suburban drama. This nail-biting tension that runs through the film is created by an excellent screenplay full of rich characters who are brought to life by a quality cast. I usually hate Ben Mendelsohn. There is something about him which has always given me the irrits. He looks smug and arrogant. But even I am willing to concede he is very good in this film, a real menacing, intimidating presence. Joel Edgerton is strong as Barry Brown. He is our initial way in to the Cody family. He is the relatable character, the one we identify with as we are finding our feet. Newcomer James Frecheville does well in his first film not to get overshadowed by his co-stars, at least not more so than the part calls for, but the real buzz is around Jackie Weaver's performance.

I'll admit, I don't actually know a lot about Jackie Weaver. She's one of those actresses who I know is quite well respected, but I don't really know on what basis. She's won AFI awards for her roles in Caddie and Stork and was in Picnic at Hanging Rock, Alvin Purple and Cosi. She has only made 13 films in an almost 40 year career, with most of her work being television based, but boy does her performance pack a punch in this one. She is present for the majority of the film, spending most of the time in the background, appearing to be simply a sweet and supportive mother to her boys, with her affection for them seeming to verge on incestuous. It is only towards the film's climax that she asserts herself as the matriarch of this crime family and we realise what a controlling and chilling character she is. It's a great performance. She has won the AFI award for Best Actress and the USA National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as getting nominations from the IF awards, the Satellite Awards (in Los Angeles) and the Washington DC Film Critics Association Awards. She is seen as an outside chance of scoring an Oscar nomination, which would make her the first Australian actor since Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! to earn an Oscar nomination for a performance in an Australian film (although I'd be tempted to look further back to Geoffrey Rush in Shine as Moulin Rouge! had a fair bit of Hollywood weight behind it).

2010 has actually been a pretty good year for Australian film. We've had a legitimate box office success, by Australian standards that is, in Tomorrow When the War Began which took $13.5 million, supported by films from a variety of genres which have performed more modestly but have still had a recognisable presence at th box office in Bran Nue Dae, Daybreakers, Red Hill, I Love You Too, Beneath Hill 60 and The Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykanos. In 2008 no Australian film took more than $3 million at the box office but in 2010 more than five films crossed that mark. Things are looking up. Even a film like The Loved Ones which tanked horribly still looked quite interesting, so the tanking was an unfortunate surprise rather than an assumed outcome. But no doubt Animal Kingdom was the jewel in the Australian cinema's crown in 2010. It got brilliant reviews across the board, and is building award momentum having won the a swag of AFI awards as well as the Grand Jury Prize for a world cinema drama at the Sundance Film Festival.

Animal Kingdom is the best film to come out of Australia for years. In fact it probably already warrants a mention in conversations about the best Australian film ever. It is that good. It has a sense of polish that you just don't usually see in Australian films. Usually they may have isolated elements which are really impressive and garner attention, but are let down in other places. Animal Kingdom sets and maintains a high standard from start to finish. It is an absolute cracker and puts a mountain of pressure on its debut director David Michôd to prove that it wasn't a fluke.