Animal Kingdom is David Michôd‘s newest film, starring James Frecheville, Jacki Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Sullivan Stapleton, Ben Mendelsohn and Guy Pearce.

Plot:
After the death of his mother, J (James Frecheville) moves in with his – until then – estranged grandmother Janine, also called Smurf (Jacki Weaver). Smurf lives with her sons Darren (Luke Ford), Pope (Ben Mendelsohn) and Craig (Sullivan Stapleton). The three of them, and Pope’s best friend Baz (Joel Edgerton), are not really good guys: Pope is an armed robber, Craig a drug dealer. J gets slowly drawn into the whole story, despite the investigating police officer Leckie’s (Guy Pearce) to help him (and have him help arrest his uncles).

Animal Kingdom is a very tight movie.The story is realistic, well-paced and interesting but the really great part about it are the performances: they are absolutely amazing.

Heart and soul of this film is Jacki Weaver. Her Smurf is a wonderful character, fiercely protective, loving and also very hard. [Without having seen The Fighter and not wanting to take away from Melissa Leo, Jacki Weaver should have gotten the Oscar this year.]

She’s not the only good thing: James Frecheville does fine, Guy Pearce is great, as are “The Cody Boys” – Luke Ford, Sullivan Stapleton and Ben Mendelsohn. But who really stood out for me (apart from Jackie Weaver) is Joel Edgerton [who seems to be in every Australian movie I see. Not that I see that many, but still].

As I said before, the movie is incredibly tight. I think that’s because on the one hand, the pacing is spot on (and seems to be timed to the second), on the other hand, the characters are just so vivid and the performances are so good that they take up all the remaining space. Therefore the movie gets an incredibly tense atmosphere and a sense of urgency that is really impressive.

I could watch this movie again right away – and I want to, which is a rare enough thing for me. But considering that we’re talking about a crime film (and that just isn’t my genre), it is truly exceptional.

Summarising: Very worth seeing.