Animal Kingdom – film review
I sat down and watched arguably the best Australian film of 2010 last week,
Animal Kingdom
. If you like a good crime thriller, Underbelly & The Combination you will enjoy this cinema experience. Based on the Cody Family of Melbourne in the 1970’s, this little production punches well above its weight.
This Australian film won the World Cinema Jury prize at Sundance earlier this year and deservedly so. The story was quite compelling and I was gripped to my seat with all of the twists and turns. In the centre of this story is Josh (James Frecheville); whose mother dies from an overdose and is thrown into an urban war zone and with his grandmother who he hardly knows. This young Aussie actor is superb in his first lead role.
His grandmother (Jacki Weaver) who plays Smurf is brilliant as head of a criminal family; the Cody Clain for which her four (4) sons; Baz (Joel Edgerton) who is thinking of giving up the world of crime; Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) who is just out of prison and lying low; Darren (Luke Ford) who is quiet and withdrawn and Craig (Sullivan Stapleton) a lunatic and is as unstable as they come; all of who form a gang that travel around Melbourne robbing banks.
The gang is pursued by Leckie (Guy Pearce), a detective who is hot on their heels. It was good to see Guy back on our screens and he really does well in this film. Overall, a movie well worth seeing.
Article written by Checkmate
Tags: animal kingdom , australian film , Ben Mendelsohn , Guy Pearce , Jacki Weaver , James Frecheville , Joel Edgerton , luke ford , Sullivan Stapleton