Animal Kingdom

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to receive wind of a brand new Aussie film coming out that to be honest, I hadn't hear much about but was being shown at Cinema Nova as part of a Q&A session. Every fortnight or so, Nova hosts an evening where the directors, writers and some of the cast of a recently released film come along to watch the film with the audience and then hang around after to answer questions in a formal environment. I've been to heaps of them now ranging from Dean O'Flaherty's Beautiful to Adam Elliot's premiere of Mary and Max. Each one has been an absolute pleasure to experience and the sessions afterwards are without a doubt the best way to gain valuable insight into the Australian film industry. This session featured the now very popular feature by David Michod, Animal Kingdom. An Underbelly on-screen as some have named it, Animal Kingdom is nothing like its televisual cousin. The action is more unjust, more real; the characters are a lot scarier and you can not ignore the beautiful timing created by a combination of cinematographic moments and faultless editing.

Looking back on the Q&A session, I remember Michod detailing the excrutiating time he endured between gaining the idea for the film and it's actual release this year. It all began 12 years ago when Michod uncovered the tale of the Pettingil gang who reigned over Melbourne's underground crime ring throughout hte 80s. The characters are loosely based on the heirarchy of the gang and are emulated through Janine "Smurf" Cody (Jacki Weaver), Pope (Ben Mendelsohn), Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), Darren (Luke Ford) and their friend Barry Brown (Joel Edgerton). The film follows the entrance of Joshua "J" Cody into this family's crazy life when his mother, sister of Pope, Craig and Darren, finally O.D's. From there, it divulges into the family's sordid armed robbery crime history but as it is the turn of the century now bank holdups and petty cash thefts are a thing of the past and Brown attempts to convince Pope of this fact to no avail. What happens next is a rollercoaster ride through the ups and downs of being wanted criminals with an all too just finale.

I have to admit, Ben Mendelsohn is one scary motherf***er. His character, Pope, resembles that of a ticking time bomb that has you constantly on the edge of your seat and wondering when he will go off. But that is the beauty of Pope's character and Michod's writing in that this rarely happens. Instead, Pope is juxtaposed by Craig's character, a constant smackhead who's paranoia sees him acting completely irrational and violent at many times throughout the film. Of the times when Pope does decide to move, you know it's going to be bad.

I sincerely recommend the film to anyone who has their doubts about the direction of Australian cinema. Animal Kingdom is a perfect example of how we are a cut above the rest and we are getting better at what we do. The fact the film won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival is testimony that alone.