Animal Kingdom

This is one of those movies with a minimalistic style, yet a very powerful set of performances. It is a character based film, with surprising and complex situations. Each new turn, pushes the preconceptions of each roll to discover layers upon layers of emotional conflict. In Animal Kingdom is the survival of the fittest that prevails over family ties. Director David Michôd doesn't have to be flashy to construct an intense story full of dysfunctional relationships. Not to mention that the editing is as intriguing and suspenseful as the rest of the look of the film. The opening scene alone should be a prelude of a fantastic, emotional roller coaster.

Jacki Weaver earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of a criminal family in Melbourne, Australia. The film begins with the death of her daughter and her grandson, Josh known as Jay, who moves in with his mother's family. J doesn't know much about his mother's family but he begins to know why his mother kept them away and estranged for years. His mother's family led by the amazing Jacki Weaver in the role of the grandmother and mother is a bit incestuous when she asks her son for a kiss which is disturbing. We learn that J's uncles are notoriously criminal in their behavior with a mother who does nothing to deter them. The family is quite a dysfunctional bunch when J enters into the situation. He is caught between the cops, the law, morality, and his family. Anyway, Jacki Weaver is fantastic and I hope to see more of her but her character won't get mother of the year.

Wow! That was intense, bleak, intriguing, dark, gritty and a great watch! Not everyone's cup of tea... but I really enjoyed it. I guess some people want more action and less reality? This was fantastic acting, script and direction! Inspired by Australian gangland crimes of the '80s and '90s, especially the Pettingill family: a Melbourne-based crime family headed by matriarch Kath Pettingill. Jackie Weaver got an Oscar Nomination for it. I watched the events unfold and wondered where this dark tale was taking me. Totally Absorbing. Excellent Movie!

This is my first ever film review, and I thought this movie was a great place to start. I had heard great reviews about this film and to my surprise there was virtually nobody in the cinema. It started off very slow introducing all the characters but as the film progressed the gripping story unraveled. I felt myself on the edge of my seat on numerous occasions. The acting is very strong and directional work is exceptionable. From start to finish the film is an intense ride, that not many films manage to achieve very well. There were a few faults, mostly with the very fast paced ending, which left me in a little bit of confusion, but overall this film is very enjoyable and worth your money to see and help support Australian cinema. 8/10

I saw the good ratings and the nice comments on IMDb so decided to give it a shot. I like dark movies but this one is utter garbage. The plot is not worth the time. The last 15-20 minutes is some what watchable. The movie is painfully slow and the characters don't gel well with the plot. The acting was so awful that more than half of the movie I thought the lead character "Joshua" was mentally challenged or something. I don't think the writer had any idea what he was writing he just picked up some ideas from one movie some from another and went about writing this garbage.I don't think the movie had a director as the movie had no direction :P. Furthermore what I don't understand what people liked in this waste of time, probably they dozed off and saw a dream or something. Avoid it and save your time.