Animal Kingdom (2010) Film 4

Written and directed by David Michod and loosely based on the Melbourne based Pettingill family and the 1988 Walsh Street shooting of police officers. In a brilliant opening scene 17 year old Joshua ‘J’ Cody (James Frechville) phones for an ambulance whilst watching the histrionics of contestants on a quiz show as they try to win more money. In a flat voice he answers questions. The camera pans back. The emergency relates to his mother, who is sitting on the couch next to him. She’s taken a heroin overdose. And no this isn’t her first time. The medics work on her as he watches and listens to the shrieks on the quiz show. His mother’s dead. He phones his estranged granny Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jacki Weaver) because he doesn’t know what he’s meant to do. She does. She always takes care of her boys. ‘J’ goes to live with her and becomes part of their crime family. They’re lying low. The eldest son, armed robber Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody is being followed by a group of detectives that are shooting suspects and asking questions later. The middle brother Craig (Sullivan Stapelton) makes him money by selling drugs. His informant within the drug squad warns him that the units dealing with armed robbery are being disbanded- it’s just a matter of time and seeing it out. ‘J’ takes the place of Darren (Luke Ford) the youngest of the trio of brothers that is told what to do and when to do it. So when ‘Pope’ Cody’s best friend and accomplice is gunned down by police ‘J’ is told to steal a car. Later that night two cups are shot in revenge, the car left lying in the middle of the road as bait. The family firm is dissolved as each brother is brought in as suspects. ‘J’ is seen both by honest detective Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) trying to do his job in a corrupt police force and by the family members as the weakest link. As an added complication ‘Nicky’, ‘J’s girlfriend from a hardworking family also knows too much. This film is a monster of deception and ‘J’s’ deadpan voice takes us through each twist and turn, from his girlfriend’s death to his granny setting up for a hit on him whilst he is in witness protection. Families. They fuck you up and if they don’t they shoot you dead and pay for the funeral.