This crime family story follows young Joshua “J” Cody (James Frecheville) that is without a home when his mother dies of, all things, a heroine overdose. Rather nonchalant about the whole ordeal, he decided to live with his extended family comprised of grandmother Janine Cody (Jacki Weaver), family friend Barry Brown (Joel Edgerton), and a host of uncles with Andrew “Pope” Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) as the main “shot caller” in their “mom & pop” crime organization. While Barry usually keeps a cool head, and even makes attempts to put the family on the “straight and narrow,” it is difficult with Pope’s drug problem, Craig Cody’s (Sullivan Stapleton) erratic (and even dangerous) behavior, and younger Darren Cody’s (Luke Ford) hesitancy in being apart of the illegal activities and in someways with the family all together. Muddled, almost lost among all of the noise is nephew J, who eventually does get dragged into the criminal life and becomes an accomplice in a murder of two policeman done by the uncles. But just as Barry might be getting the group to change their ways, he is innocently shot dead by law enforcement. What follows is the exposition of a family that has lost its only “shining light” and is feeling the heat for their latest crime from hard line Detective Leckie (Guy Pearce) which leaves J as the only hinge between being brought to justice or evading charges as usual.
This film was pretty even from start to finish. Sure, it had its moments of excitement or danger, but they never got to the point of being outrageous or unbelievable. The “shootouts” seem very “real” and aren’t exaggerated for minutes on end. The loser usually dies pretty quickly, and for the story on display in this film, that’s a good, working style. On the other hand, the overall writing of the film (narrative and script) is pretty bland considering this is supposed to be an “Aussie Gangster” picture. Everyone in the movie does a good job with their role, but no one really just “steals the show” and puts in a great performance. For the first 15 minutes, I was convinced it was going to be from Joel Edgerton’s portrayal of the “voice of reason” in the crew, but 10 minutes later he was taken out of the story. And while I understand that this action was supposed to set a “no nonsense, no holds barred” tone for the film, it took away one of the strongest pulls into the family for the audience. Because their are so many characters that all get a relatively fair share of screen time, it becomes hard to get attached and either root for or against the “gangsters.” And the character J is so emotionally dead (from his clearly unloving upbringing) that it’s even hard to sympathize with him because he doesn’t really care about anything for most of the movie. Also, the “star” Guy Pearce lives up to the billing, but he doesn’t enter into the equation until half way through the second act. It would have been nice to have the overwhelming tension of the “bad guy-good guy rat race” earlier in the film. But honestly, most of the actors handle their parts very well and do good work. Although I will say that Jacki Weaver’s performance of the mother/grandmother is quite overrated. Sure, shes shows some real “teeth” in the last 20 minutes, but she definitely isn’t the daunting, “diabolical” character that some have labeled her. She is simply an older woman that has been in the crime business for quite some time. And just because you do what it takes to “get the job done” doesn’t make you especially evil. Despite all of this negativity, the movie does work. I mean at no point is the story or character development hard to believe or just downright stupid, and for a first time guy attempting this type of “powerful” film I will give him credit for keeping the proverbial car on the road. But a little more emotion and contrasting point of views within the family would have been nice.
The special features add a lot of insight into Michod himself and the process it took to make this film a reality.
“Creating Animal Kingdom” is an interview session with Michod while on the way to the Sundance Film Festival premier of the flick and breaks down the writing of the film, tells the development side of the production in getting everyone together for the project, and displays the actors and how they fit within the scope of everything.
“Q&A with director David Michod and actors Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville” was done at LA Film Fest and simply gets comments about the film from the aforementioned character directors and others.
There is also audio commentary with Michod and a Theatrical Trailer.