Review: Animal Kingdom

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When a teenager suddenly finds himself reunited with his estranged criminal family, his life spins out of control until he's forced to decide his place within the Animal Kingdom.

"J" Cody (James Frecheville) has no memory of his dysfunctional extended family, whose criminal background keeps them under surveillance. A sullen and quiet young man, J has no clear place in their world or any power in it. His grandmother Janine (Jacki Weaver) is cheerfully indulgent and prone to barely appropriate displays of affection with her unstable sons (Luke Ford, Ben Mendelsohn, Sullivan Stapleton). When rogue police take action against one of their own, J is pressured to choose between his family and the law.

Few of the characters in Animal Kingdom have any redeeming qualities, and what few there are usually mask a darker purpose. Director and writer David Michod made sure every character had a dark side. Animal Kingdom may bring to mind the Nash Edgerton feature The Square and Spider, the short that played with it, and for good reason: Spider and Animal Kingdom were both written by Michod. But unlike those films, there's not even any redeeming circumstances.

While the central character is J, he remains a cipher throughout; it's hard to tell whether Frecheville's playing stoic or simply cagey, as J is as much as an observer in his life as a participant. It's the other characters that get explored through the deliberate pacing in the film. The standout is Jackie Weaver as Janine; her kittenish voice belies her age, and her smiling demeanor is a disarming disguise. Weaver is perhaps the one thing worth watching in Animal Kingdom. Diminutive in size, Janine is flashy and manipulatively accomodating. Ben Mendelsohn embraces his role as the unstable Pope, Janine's eldest, a little too well; Pope is so menacing he's the stuff of nightmares.

On a purely intellectual level, the elements are there for a clear story but it's bogged down by so much human detritus. Don't expect to see Tourism Australia endorsing Animal Kingdom any time soon. The gritty, unsympathetic film shows aspects of modern society only filmmakers enjoy exposing. Animal Kingdom reduces humanity to its basest instincts, with little chance of redemption.