Here we have the announcement of a brand new talent, and with the amount of talent this guy appears to have, we may be seeing the beginnings of one of the future greats. The person I am talking about is the writer and director of this amazing Australian film, David Michod. I do not think that I have felt safer in a first time director’s hands probably since Quentin Tarantino came out with “Reservoir Dogs”. David Michod just flat out knows how to make movies and he seems so confident behind the camera.
“Animal Kingdom” is a Melbourne based crime film that is kind-of based on the Walsh St. police killings that happened in the 80’s. Back then, the police force in Victoria had a number of different squads set up, like the armed-robbery squad, who took to enforcing the law a little too strongly (some would say illegally) and when a number of wanted or suspected criminals ended up dead in suspicious circumstances by the police, two random police officers were murdered in retaliation, which ultimately caused these police squads to be disbanded.
In the film, we follow Josh (or “J” as he is called throughout the film) who, following his mother’s O.D and subsequent death, goes to live with his grandmother who he has not seen for around fifteen years. She lives with her sons, who all happen to be a criminals, specializing in armed robbery. J slowly gets drawn into this world, just by being around his cousins, and when one of the family is shot down and killed in broad daylight (not to mention, while unarmed) by the cops, the rest of the family plan to retaliate. I think my description of the Walsh Street killings above, may give you some idea as to what the brothers decide to do, but this act is the catalyst to the downfall of a once powerful crime family.
It doesn’t take long for the cops to snatch up J, and give him no choice but to testify against his cousins. However, Smurf (J’s grandmother) will not just sit around and let her boys rot in jail, she will do anything to get them out even if it means assassinating her own grandson. I would rather not explain anymore, because this is a film worth seeing without too much knowledge, especially because the film continually gets more suspenseful as it goes along.
What I love about this film so much is its pacing. This is a slow and deliberate film and in some ways a quiet film, that explodes into violence. The reason I love this film, I think, is because it is shot classically with well composed shots, it’s beautifully edited and never reverts to what is the norm these days of shaky cam and quick rapid fire editing, so you have no clue as to what is going on. David Michod struck gold with his cast, as no-one delivers a bad performance here.
This is a true ensemble cast, as no one outshines anyone else, they all deliver on the same level which I believe is very important. While I am very happy for Jacki Weaver for getting all the attention she is getting for her role as “Smurf”, I am actually shocked by it, not because her work is bad, but because she is the only one getting the recognition when they are all good. However, she really is superb playing the matriarch of this crime family, whose relationship with her boys sometimes seems a little too close.
Aside from the character of “Smurf”, the other big character is that of Pope, who you would say is the psychopath of the family, who is played magnificently by Ben Mendelsohn. When I think of Ben Mendelsohn, I actually think of a nerdy sort of guy, and I never really thought that he would have the ability to pull off this kind of character. Well, he definitely does, so much so that he makes Pope a truly terrifying character. There is one scene in particular, which is both humorous and chilling at the same time, and that is the scene where he is antagonizing his younger brother Darren (played by Luke Ford) over his suit and questioning him over if he is gay or not. It is a hilarious scene (“a bourbon and coke isn’t a very gay drink”), which subtly changes, as Pope becomes more threatening. The scene has a later pay-off for us, the audience, as Pope tries the same line of questioning towards J, which builds immediate suspense, because we know that J could now be in trouble.
Guy Pearce continues to fill his resume with impressive performances, and he can now add his Detective Leckie to that list too. The thing most impressive in his performance is the way he conducts his police business and interviews, in such a matter-of-fact way. On most television shows these days, the detective ends up yelling and screaming at the suspect, whereas Leckie just talks in an almost monotone voice, just like it is another day on the job, making it seem very real. Plus, you’ve got to love his moustache, classic 80’s moustache.
Speaking of the time period, it is very interesting to note that the film is kind of set in a never-time. What I mean by this is that although it is based on things that happen in the 80’s, it clearly isn’t set then because characters have LCD televisions, use mobile phones, even the shows on the televisions are from today (like “Deal Or No Deal”). However, it also isn’t set today, because the police squads depicted in the film no longer exist in today’s police force, and the film just has that 1980’s atmosphere to it. Anyway, that is why I say it is set in never-time.
Originally David Michod had planned “Animal Kingdom” to be a big three hour epic, but realized that he just didn’t need a lot of what he thought he needed to tell the story, but amazingly a complete ten minute chunk was taken directly out of the film. In these scenes, while attending the wake of their deceased family member, Pope just randomly kills one of the guests stating “This is what we should do to the cops”. From here the brothers then have to cut up and dispose of the body. As cool as this scene sounds, David Michod wisely cut this out, because he felt that it ultimately took away from their retaliation against the police (plus I don’t think it would have fit the mood of the finished film).
I can not finish this without mentioning just how good Antony Partos’s score is for “Animal Kingdom”. It is simply outstanding. This is another Australian film that was distributed by Madman, and everything they did wrong to “The Loved Ones”, they excelled at with “Animal Kingdom”. The marketing of this film was incredibly well done, from the great posters, to the awesome trailer. Word of mouth was also good (it got great reviews from Sundance earlier in the year) and importantly they choose a release date and stuck with it. As a result, people knew the film was out there, and they went to see it.
The screening that I went to was completely sold out (it was lucky that I met a friend while in the queue to buy my ticket, who was able to save me a good seat – thanks Phill), which is such a rare thing to see, not just for an Australian film, but any film. Overall, I am so pleased to see an Australian film so high on this list. While the film is slow-paced which may put some people off, I can tell you that you are missing out on one of the greatest films we have ever produced in Australia, if you miss it for that reason. I’ve seen the film twice already, and look forward to revisiting it again soon, and as such I obviously recommend this to everyone.
Ranked 2 in Top 25 of 2010
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