Thursday 7th April 2011
6.30pm pre-screening drinks and nibbles
7.00pm film screens
Animal Kingdom
****.5 stars Australian film
Celebrating the recent Oscars and the nomination of Australian film industry stalwart, Jacki Weaver, Reels at Wehl, is screening 'Animal Kingdom'.
ANIMAL KINGDOM is a powerful psychological crime drama that tells the story of a tense battle between a dangerous criminal family and the police.
Armed robber Pope Cody (BEN MENDELSOHN) is in hiding, on the run from a gang of renegade detectives who want him dead. His business partner and best friend, Barry 'Baz' Brown (JOEL EDGERTON), wants out of the game, recognising that their days of old-school banditry are all but over. Pope's younger brother, the speed-addicted and volatile Craig Cody (SULLIVAN STAPLETON), is making a fortune in the illicit substances trade - the true cash cow of the modern criminal fraternity - whilst the youngest Cody brother, Darren (LUKE FORD), naively navigates his way through this criminal world - the only world his family has ever known.
Armed robber Pope Cody (BEN MENDELSOHN) is in hiding, on the run from a gang of renegade detectives who want him dead. His business partner and best friend, Barry 'Baz' Brown (JOEL EDGERTON), wants out of the game, recognising that their days of old-school banditry are all but over. Pope's younger brother, the speed-addicted and volatile Craig Cody (SULLIVAN STAPLETON), is making a fortune in the illicit substances trade - the true cash cow of the modern criminal fraternity - whilst the youngest Cody brother, Darren (LUKE FORD), naively navigates his way through this criminal world - the only world his family has ever known.
Awards
World Cinema Jury prize at Sundance
Oscar nomination best actress
Reviews
****.5 stars. The revelation here is JACKI WEAVER, always a fine actor but seldom revealing the depths of character she does here. All the performances are superb, down to the small parts. ABC's David & Margaret 'At the Movies'
Most countries do not define themselves by their criminals, but most countries were not established as dumping grounds for the poor and criminal classes either. The hatreds go back a long way. In a sense, there's a direct line between the shootout at Glenrowan in 1880 – when the Kelly gang and the cops attempted to settle things their own way – and the events of Animal Kingdom, an extraordinarily tense, menacing film set in a Melbourne crime family in the recent past.
Animal Kingdom is cinema, not television. The difference is subtle but significant. There is more unsaid, more told by the camera rather than dialogue and more time to develop ideas in the script.
No one will accuse this film of romanticising criminals but nor does it allow us to see them simply as beasts.
Classification: MA
Duration: 113 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: David Michod
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frecheville
Producer: Liz Watts
Screenplay: David Michod
Distributor: Madman
Language: English
Country: Australia
Duration: 113 mins
Genre: Drama
Director: David Michod
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frecheville
Producer: Liz Watts
Screenplay: David Michod
Distributor: Madman
Language: English
Country: Australia
