There has been a lot of hype with this film. And rightly so. A terrific slice of Australian cinema.

I won't get bogged down in the plot. This feels like a punch in the gut when you leave it. Michod's direction is superb. There are one or two dollies that didn't just feel financially motivated. Particularly when Ben Mendelsohn's Andrew is perfectly captured with "All Out Of Love" playing. His performance was simply incredible, as was Jackie Weaver as the deranged mother.

Rather than attempting to bog the movie down with a clear message, it's a raw look at family and crime. It would've been easy to pontificate on the rash behaviour of the Melbourne police, or to look deeply at the psychology of a criminal family - instead, the film seems to want to explore the idea of retribution and 'comeuppance' and the subsequent fear of knowing it's coming.

It's hard to do this film justice with words. It simply requires viewing.

Andrew,

Thanks for pointing me towards this thread.
Animal Kingdom is a modernized gender bent Aussie Godfather ensemble rocket.
The Don here is played by Jacki Weaver, just give her the Supporting Oscar already.
She's a force of nature matriarch for this crime family.
And her "love" for her children treads some mentally incestuous waters.
Joel Edgarton has a nice supporting turn. He emotes well without chewing the scenery.
I'm now interested to see what he can do with The Thing prequel this fall.
Kudos to Guy Pearce for taking a basically thankless role to help promote the film.
The dramatic dynamics here are fluid and brutal and can change in a heartbeat.
Danger is always in the air, even when they are watching tele and drinking beers.
It's fascinating to watch this family in their daily routine laced with crime.
This is one hell of a writer/director debut, I'll be following Michod's career for sure!

E.D.

Finally caught up to this film. I could see why Jacki Weaver got nominated. She was really good. I was wondering where the film was going. It involved me in many ways, I would up liking the film quite a bit.