Animal Kingdom (2010)

Directed by David Michôd. Starring Ben Mendelsohn, James Frecheville, Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Luke Ford, Sullivan Stapleton, Joel Edgerton, Dan Wyllie, Laura Wheelwright, Anthony Hayes, Clayton Jacobson, Susan Prior. [R]

Seventeen-year-old “J” (Frecheville) finds himself torn between the “loyalty of silence” regarding his dangerous Melbourne crime family and the police force who insist that the only way out for him is witness protection and testifying against his psychopathic fugitive uncle (Mendelsohn). Gripping, provocative crime drama, possessing shades of classic Greek tragedy, with an ominous undertow that bristles with constant danger, exposing the virulent truth that no bonds—not even familial ones—are safe from breaking under the influence of fear, paranoia, rage, and amoral self-preservation. Mendelsohn is dead-eyed and frightening, and Weaver does scene-stealing work as the seemingly nurturing and softhearted matriarch (but when mother hens sense their chicks are threatened…). Only major shortcoming is in the central figure, J, who’s observant and passive for so long that, until the final act and denouement, he often fades into the proverbial wallpaper; though it was wise to depict his turmoil and indecisiveness through internal pain covered up by stoicism, having such a charisma-deprived protagonist delays full immersion into this harrowing world. Director Michôd delivers an arresting sense of urgency and grittiness; he also wrote the screenplay, which always seems to have one more surprise up its sleeve. Later adapted into a television series.

82/100