August 29, 2010

MOVIES: Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, 2010)

J is 17, and doesn't know his mother's family very well. They're small time thugs and drug dealers, and she feared for his safety if he got involved with them. But now mom has died (of a drug overdose, with suggests that "safety of my son" stopped being a motivating force in her life at some point), and J has nowhere else to turn.

And as J's mother had feared, life with the Codys is a veritable cornucopia of danger. J's uncles are (in varying degrees) violent, paranoid, and psychotic, and his grandmother (known as Smurf), though not actively involved in the criminal activity, certainly doesn't condemn it particularly strongly. And when push comes to shove, she's willing to go further than we might have guessed to protect her boys.

We're in fairly familiar crime drama territory here, with the expected mix of sudden outbursts of violence, innocents placed unfairly in danger, and evil lurking behind every apparently loving smile. But it's executed with great skill, and the Australian setting gives it a bit of novelty for American audiences.

Most of the actors are unfamiliar here, with Guy Pearce (as a cop who tries to help J) being the most recognizable face. The performances are uniformly fine, with Jacki Weaver making a particularly strong impression as Smurf and James Frecheville making an impressive movie debut as J. This one probably won't get beyond the largest cities, but it's certainly worth adding it to your Netflix queue.

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