animal-kingdom

One of the most popular films at this year’s Sundance Festival – and winner of the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury prize – has been David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom. Set in the seemingly unruffled city of Melbourne, the film is a dark and atmospheric family felony drama.  Michôd shows a lot of directing maturity in his debut feature.  His characters are quiet and all seem to be hiding something.  This juxtaposes very well with the action that roars speedy and furiously, leaving the audience shuddering.

Animal Kingdom tells the tale of seventeen year-old J (Josh) as he navigates his continued existence amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him. J quickly comes to believe that he is a player in this world, but soon find out that the entire situation is far larger and more threatening than he could ever envisage. Guy Pearce plays senior police officer Nathan Leckie, who, recognizing that J’s youth and inexperience might well prove to be the key to finally conquering the Codys, tries to lure him into the fold after the death of a close associate. In order to survive, J must settle on how the game is played and choose his place in this slyness and brutal animal kingdom.

Welcome to the startling Melbourne crime underworld, where tensions are on the rim of ignition between felons and renegade cops. The Animal Kingdom is scheduled to release on August 13, 2010. Animal Kingdom is a truly vast film.  Wrenching and catastrophic, this film takes the crime drama away from the crime itself and into the heart of the dynamics of families that, depending on your viewpoint, have too much or not enough love to permit each other to go on the way they have.  Perfectly crafted, Watch Animal Kingdom which will leave the audience feeling like a frog in a pot of water, who couldn’t notice that the water was sweltering until it was already too late.