"Masset-Depass, helming his sophomore feature, uses a brisk version of cinema verite to quickly establish Tania and Ivan’s backstory and their banal, work-a-day world of the present. These opening scenes have the look and feel of Dardenne Brothers products of the early 2000s, as Masset-Depass’s handheld cameras capture the cold, biting grime of industrious Liège with clanging immediacy."
Here's our LIVE Oscar Blog for what was a fairly predictable and uneventful night that will go down in the books as the failed "Franco and Hathaway" experiment. ABC might want to start planning the format for the 84th sometime next week.
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.