Our world is filled with all sorts of unique individuals. Some are very nurturing and kind in nature. Others are ridden with evil, sweltering over into a lifestyle of wrongdoing. Our world has a dog eat dog mentality. Often what we receive in life comes down to how we go about achieving it. In David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom, he invents world of paranoia in which his characters do what they need to do in order to survive. They harness their actions through their lifestyles, and within the environments in which they have been brought up.
The film wastes no time in getting into the story as J or Josh, the centralized character of the film and played by James Frecheville, enters into a way of life beyond his wildest nightmares, when his mother loses her life to a heroin overdose. The underage young man finds himself left to live with his grandmother and uncles under a roof that is crowded with sketchy practices. Janine “Smurf” Cody (Jacki Weaver), J’s grandmother, acts as the queen bee of their dysfunctional family. It is hard to peg exactly what is going on with her motives throughout the entirety of the film, but as an audience member we are uncomfortable by her existence. Her sons are immersed in drugs and criminal acts that leave nothing to the imagination. The worst, Pope (Ben Mendelson), is somewhat of the ringleader, and by all standards insane with a killer’s instinct. Pope and his best friend, Baz (Joel Edgerton), get in over their head with the police and everything begins spiraling out of control. In the midst of all of this, J gets dragged into the family business. He is only able to find peace through his girl friend Nicky and her family, who are the closest thing that he has to a functionally operating family. When people start dying, J gets caught in a legal situation, where he is forced to decide whether to protect his family or himself. Detective Nathan Leckie, played by the wonderful Guy Pierce, consults with J as he tries to save the young man from falling too far into the troubled family’s ways.
I am not in particularly familiar with Australian cinema, but Michôd’s film styling impressed me. In his first full feature film, Michôd shows that he has a vision for telling a crime tale that rivals many of the greats. His in your face camera work frames the picture to put you as close to the action as possible without losing the presence of what is happening. On the flip side, he manages to keep the camera at a fair enough distance as to not encroach on the characters and their actions. When necessary the camera floats about the scene with little to no effort, allowing his audience to stay engaged rather than distracted by what he is trying to accomplish.
The film appropriately uses dialogue to build tension, and truth behind its characters. However, Michôd is not afraid to drown out the live sound and replace it with emotionally driven music in order to allow the visuals to tell the story. In some of the most powerful scenes, sound and dialogue take the back seat to emotion engulfed visual sequences. Throughout the film, I found myself uncomfortably adjusting my position behind clenched teeth in order to brace myself for what was about to happen.
The film has garnered some Oscar buzz for Jacki Weaver in her portrayal of a controlling mother-like figure. The character is haunting, as she almost seems to be in love with her boys in an incest-like sentiment. You understand there is something always clicking in the back of her mind, and though she never really acts out, there is evidence that she must be just as messed up as her sons. The testament that her boys are criminals, says something about her character. The Oscar talk is warranted. She is brilliant, and likely won’t be rivaled by many others in regards to a truly great supporting performance this year. But I am not convinced that in the political world of the Academy Awards, performance alone will get her a nod (i.e. Sam Rockwell for Moon in 2009, Paul Giamatti for Sideways in 2004). With that said, I hope that I am wrong. Her performance was clearly the most interesting within the film, but shouldn’t undermine the performances by Frecheville in the leading role, and Sullivan Stapleton as the drug-dealing Uncle Craig. Both of these actors, in my opinion, gave outstanding performances. Frecheville plays his character as an out of place teen trying to cope with the things around him. A scene in the final half hour of the film, where he finally breaks down showcases the young actor’s talents. Stapleton captures the essence of being completely on edge and fills the screen with paranoia in a way that swallows up the audience and spits them back out feeling rather unsettled. The rest of the cast was great, but gave nothing to film that was exceptionally noteworthy. I suppose, much of that should be blamed on the script, and the way in which the characters are played out.
My main complaint of Animal Kingdom is that at times the almost two hour film seemed to drag. At times, I thought, “Alright, let’s get to the point.” But in the end, it did get to the point. The script was beautifully crafted to say or show all the right things at all the right times. It all comes back to one common theme. In the world of animals, there is a sense that individuals are to fight for themselves. Michôd captures this idea through his title, conversations, and the actions being played out. Animal Kingdom, as the title so perfectly demonstrates, is a film about survival, and encompassing the traits of animalistic nature to the human race. In each of us, we have some animal-like instincts, how we harness these instincts is up to us.
4 out of 5 Stars
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