ANIMAL KINGDOM

You know you are in store for a good movie when the first scene grips you with a brand new perspective you haven’t seen before. You’re in the hands of a director – in this case writer-director David Michod – who knows what he’s doing. Animal Kingdom is an Australian crime movie that turns a teen character into an observer, then reluctant participant, and because of that, he becomes a cautionary tale.

In the first scene, our perspective shifts about what we think is happening. J (James Frecheville) watches television in a stupor while his mother is spread out on the couch. Simple two-shot has us believe they are having family time in front of the television. The police arrive, the paramedics as well, which reveals that the mum is dead – she overdosed on drugs. J has nowhere to go as a 17-year old, so he calls his estranged grandmother Smurf Cody (Jacki Weaver, a mesmerizing schizoid performance) to house him. This turns into a life-changing mistake. Her whole family consisting three criminal sons are sociopaths and thieves and dealers.

You might get the sense that this is going to be one of those downbeat and nothing goes right crime sagas where are good boy falls into the trappings of criminal code, and you would be correct with that assumption. This is one of those movies that will keep you watching as it engrossing gritty docudrama, even though there are no new lessons that you haven’t learned before.

The Cody boys are played by Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton and Sullivan Stapleton, and if you’ve never heard of them that’s okay. All you need to know is that they create screen personas as natural born bad boys. When the cops shoot one of them without regards to procedure, which incites the Cody boys to go on their own cop killing spree. They get J to steal the car that will be used to deceive two other unwitting cops.

At this point no Australian film can be without either Russell Crowe or Guy Pearce, but this one features Pearce. As a seasoned and diplomatic cop, he wants to package together a case against the Cody boys. As detective Nathan Leckie, Pearce is sincere and steadfast, but most of all, tough. But he has a concern for J, and he wants him to bring together evidence against his relatives but remain safe doing it. Also in the mix is J’s new girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright), an innocent girl who deserves none of the mess that she stumbles into. It would have been better if J never had a girlfriend in the first place. The Cody boys end up tearing her apart, in ways that are more than just figurative, and force her to make a disgraceful decision.

The 17-year old J has to make some adult, and some potentially gruesome decisions. This is the first full-length feature by Michod, who has a number of award-winning short films to his credit (his short “Crossbow” is supposedly his most celebrated). He has with “Animal Kingdom” made a crime film with true to life density, the kind that American filmmaker Michael Mann (“Manhunter,” “The Insider”) gets praised for. Not so life-affirming as entertainment, but it’s impressive in how it makes you glue your eyes to the screen.

Go to the official site at http://www.weareanimalkingdom.com/splashpage.html

Grade: B