Animal Kingdom | DVD Review

A breakout hit at Sundance (winner of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Award for World Cinema Dramatic competition), Australia’s Animal Kingdom was nominated for a record breaking 18 awards from the 2010 Australian Film Institute, a Golden Globe award nomination for Jacki Weaver, this debut crime drama from director David Michôd highlights the tension between a notorious criminal gang and the city’s lawless police.

The film follows seventeen-year-old Josh Cody (James Frecheville) after the accidental overdose of his mother. With no place to go, Josh contacts his estranged grandmother Smurf (Jacki Weaver), a matriarchal string puller over her notorious gang of sons. The drama starts to unfold when the leader of the gang, Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) learns that his partner Barry (Joel Edgerton) wants to quit the business.

Surrounded by violence, Josh, a catatonic character is thrown into the center of attention following a series of events leaving him to make the decision to protect his new-found family or assist the Melbourne police in taking down the crime-ridden family. With an emotionless expression throughout, you are left to wonder if his family or the head of police Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) will influence Josh’s decision.

With an impressive ensemble cast, Animal Kingdom looks deeper into the politics behind this family of crime. Violent action scenes are kept to a minimum throughout the film leaving behind a slow, yet powerful look at the gang’s dynamic unraveling. In a dog eat dog world, it is Smurf and her aberrant relationship with her sons who ultimately controls the power struggle within the family.

The crime drama is revealed through hours of additional features that highlight the making of Animal Kingdom and include audio commentary from the director David Michôd. It is nicely adapted to 2:35:1 widescreen.

Audio Commentary with Writer/Director David Michôd
The director, David Michôd whose self-deprecating humor is quite funny, provides audio commentary. He mentioned from the beginning that he was not sure if he would be able to talk straight through the film and you can tell that he was quite unsure of what to say at first, but he went straight into it and started describing the difficulties in some scenes due to the fluctuating weather in Melbourne and about having to delete scenes that didn’t quite work well with the flow of the movie. Michôd also praises his actors and highlights characteristics and actions that they created for their role, which in my opinion allow the viewer to feel more connected to the characters on screen.

The Making of Animal Kingdom
The making of Animal Kingdom is only around 15 minutes long, but full of interesting facts on the film as well as a behind the scenes view. Commentary is made primarily from director David Michôd and producer Liz Watts. Many facts that Michôd mentions are repeated from the audio commentary during the film. Cast members also briefly reflect on their characters and their desire to play the role. The making of highlights Michôd talking about the difficulties in creating a film on a budget and how he felt it should have a television feel to the film as most people can relate to cop and robber shows shown frequently on the small screen.

Q&A with Writer/Director David Michôd Producer Liz Watts and Actors Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and James Frecheville
At close to 34 minutes long the Q&A includes writer and director David Michôd, producer Liz Watts and cast-members Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton and James Frecheville. Held after the premiere of the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival it is a nice introduction to the creation of the film, starting back in 2000 when Michôd wrote the original script. Interesting to note is the comment Jacki Weaver makes answering the question on how a veteran actor works and responds with a first-time director.

Animal Kingdom is a wonderful debut by Director David Michôd that places Australia back on the international cinema scene. The film is a gritty inside look at the insecurities facing a notorious crime family. It is a highly enjoyable crime film that focuses more on the connections within a family rather than realistic action scenes. With strong performances by an amazing ensemble cast and an omnipresent music score by Antony Partos, Animal Kingdom definitely creates suspense with every sequence and mundane action.

Reviewed by Dionissios Kollias

Movie rating – 4

Disc Rating – 3.5