Animal Kingdom
2010/ Australia/ 113 mins/ Dir. David Michôd
Cast: James Frecheville, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton
A powerful crime drama exploring the tense battle between a criminal family and the police, and the ordinary lives caught in the middle.
Welcome to the Melbourne underworld. Following the death of his mother, seventeen year-old Joshua ‘J’ Cody (Frecheville) moves in with his hitherto-estranged family, under the watchful eye of his doting grandmother, and her three criminal sons – The Cody Boys. Eldest son and armed robber, Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody is in hiding from a gang of renegade detectives. Middle brother Craig is a successful but volatile drug-dealer, whilst the youngest Cody, Darren, naively follows his elder brothers’ lead.
Just as Pope’s business partner and best friend, Barry Brown (Edgerton), decides that he wants out of the game, recognising that their days of old-school banditry are all but over, tensions between the family and the police explode. J finds himself at the centre of a cold-blooded revenge plot that turns his family upside down and which throws him directly into the path of senior homicide detective, Nathan Leckie (Pearce).
‘Animal Kingdom is an art house crime saga that will put your heart in your mouth, a moody, brooding, modern-day film noir’