Director/writer: David Michod
Photography: Adam Arkapaw
Music: Antony Partos
Editor: Luke Doolan
Cast: James Frecheville, Jacki Weaver, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Laura Wheelwright, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Sullivan Stapleton, David Michod
I meant to write about this movie—not to be confused with an early Disney movie of similar name—long before there was even a TV series, which I understand is now entering its sixth season. That tells you how slow I can be about getting to these things but I should still probably issue a spoiler alert right about here. Full disclosure, I have still not seen any of the TNT series, which seems to be popular and well reviewed. Director and writer David Michod is involved, which probably accounts for it, because this movie is very good—a quiet, slow-burn thriller about a family of miscreants and the corrupt cops who chase them, with dire consequences all around.
Looking over synopses of the TV show I can see some changes have been made, as this 2010 movie version is a standalone and takes full advantage of that with plot points that can't be undone. Or, perhaps, can only be undone if you get a tempting TV show offer and are the original auteur. Lots of people seem to be still alive in the TV show who definitely die in this movie. Well, that's OK too. Jacki Weaver is good as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the crime family's mother or mother figure, but I can see where Ellen Barkin could knock that role out of the park too.
I meant to write about this movie—not to be confused with an early Disney movie of similar name—long before there was even a TV series, which I understand is now entering its sixth season. That tells you how slow I can be about getting to these things but I should still probably issue a spoiler alert right about here. Full disclosure, I have still not seen any of the TNT series, which seems to be popular and well reviewed. Director and writer David Michod is involved, which probably accounts for it, because this movie is very good—a quiet, slow-burn thriller about a family of miscreants and the corrupt cops who chase them, with dire consequences all around.
Looking over synopses of the TV show I can see some changes have been made, as this 2010 movie version is a standalone and takes full advantage of that with plot points that can't be undone. Or, perhaps, can only be undone if you get a tempting TV show offer and are the original auteur. Lots of people seem to be still alive in the TV show who definitely die in this movie. Well, that's OK too. Jacki Weaver is good as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the crime family's mother or mother figure, but I can see where Ellen Barkin could knock that role out of the park too.
The specific story in the movie—the writing is one of the picture's best points, as the screenplay gets up to speed quickly and then becomes complicated in interesting ways—is about a nephew, Joshua or "J" (James Frecheville), who comes to live with the Cody crime family after his mother dies of a heroin overdose. Lots of "nicknames" in this one. J's mother had been estranged from the rest for most of J's life so he doesn't know them well or what they are about, much like ourselves as viewers. J is barely of age, a typical inscrutable and silent teenager. He's not so much sullen as just quiet and he seems easy to push around. He has a girlfriend who's obviously attracted to this family as she learns more of them, an element of suspense that Michod works well.
Almost immediately the cops take out one of the brothers. It doesn't exactly set things in motion, because they have been in motion for some time as the cops are conducting investigations (legitimate and otherwise), but their aggression takes it to the more intense levels on which this movie operates. The Cody brothers' response is insanely over the top, setting up and killing a couple of uniformed cops. It does strain credulity—according to all the crime fiction I know, killing cops is one of the fastest ways to your own doom and most of the bad guys know that—but as the picture goes along it's more like foreshadowing because these brothers are just bad people.
The worst is Andrew "Pope" (Ben Mendelsohn), a stalking monster of a character who is scary and unpleasant. He's cunning and smart but also seems to have problems with sex. He's loudly homophobic but in the context of his behavior he looks more like someone who cannot accept something about himself and takes it out on others in cruel ways. He's a kind of human monster that is familiar, but Michod's script combined with Mendelsohn's performance puts him over. My skin crawled every time I saw him in the vicinity of J's girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright).
Once the cops are hunting the family, they identify J as the weak link in the chain. They pull him in for questioning and try to make it look as if he's cooperating with them, to cause more tensions in the family. It works. It's like being in a kettle of boiling water when the lid comes down. At the same time, it starts to get more complicated. Michod works his way toward a satisfying conclusion, but it involves turning J into a kind of mastermind himself and lots of compression. I appreciate that Michod (or someone) was mindful about getting it under two hours but it does feel a bit rushed in the last third. Still it's basically a good finish (and coda). And then look what happened. Michod got six seasons (at least) of an acclaimed TV show.
Animal Kingdom was Quentin Tarantino's third-favorite movie of 2010 (after Toy Story 3 and The Social Network), which is how it ended up on another one of my haphazard lists. I remember 2010 was considered a weak year for movies at the time. The Social Network was taken as a kind of oasis of quality, but I seem to keep finding movies from that year I want to write about: Another Year, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Certified Copy, Cyrus (#9 on Tarantino's list), Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Ghost Writer, Poetry, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, yes The Social Network, Super, and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Honestly, I see a bunch more that are still worth looking at again just from Tarantino's list: Enter the Void, The Town, and True Grit. Plus Biutiful, Carlos, Catfish, Let Me In, yes Toy Story 3, and Winter's Bone. Among others. And I know there are still movies to see from that year that are probably worth tracking down. So, much like 1993 accidentally turned out to be a personal big year for movies, so has 2010. More on the way, eventually as usual.
Almost immediately the cops take out one of the brothers. It doesn't exactly set things in motion, because they have been in motion for some time as the cops are conducting investigations (legitimate and otherwise), but their aggression takes it to the more intense levels on which this movie operates. The Cody brothers' response is insanely over the top, setting up and killing a couple of uniformed cops. It does strain credulity—according to all the crime fiction I know, killing cops is one of the fastest ways to your own doom and most of the bad guys know that—but as the picture goes along it's more like foreshadowing because these brothers are just bad people.
The worst is Andrew "Pope" (Ben Mendelsohn), a stalking monster of a character who is scary and unpleasant. He's cunning and smart but also seems to have problems with sex. He's loudly homophobic but in the context of his behavior he looks more like someone who cannot accept something about himself and takes it out on others in cruel ways. He's a kind of human monster that is familiar, but Michod's script combined with Mendelsohn's performance puts him over. My skin crawled every time I saw him in the vicinity of J's girlfriend Nicky (Laura Wheelwright).
Once the cops are hunting the family, they identify J as the weak link in the chain. They pull him in for questioning and try to make it look as if he's cooperating with them, to cause more tensions in the family. It works. It's like being in a kettle of boiling water when the lid comes down. At the same time, it starts to get more complicated. Michod works his way toward a satisfying conclusion, but it involves turning J into a kind of mastermind himself and lots of compression. I appreciate that Michod (or someone) was mindful about getting it under two hours but it does feel a bit rushed in the last third. Still it's basically a good finish (and coda). And then look what happened. Michod got six seasons (at least) of an acclaimed TV show.
Animal Kingdom was Quentin Tarantino's third-favorite movie of 2010 (after Toy Story 3 and The Social Network), which is how it ended up on another one of my haphazard lists. I remember 2010 was considered a weak year for movies at the time. The Social Network was taken as a kind of oasis of quality, but I seem to keep finding movies from that year I want to write about: Another Year, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Certified Copy, Cyrus (#9 on Tarantino's list), Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Ghost Writer, Poetry, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, yes The Social Network, Super, and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Honestly, I see a bunch more that are still worth looking at again just from Tarantino's list: Enter the Void, The Town, and True Grit. Plus Biutiful, Carlos, Catfish, Let Me In, yes Toy Story 3, and Winter's Bone. Among others. And I know there are still movies to see from that year that are probably worth tracking down. So, much like 1993 accidentally turned out to be a personal big year for movies, so has 2010. More on the way, eventually as usual.
The promo ads for the TV series, all I know and which used to run ad nauseam, make it look like an organized crime family soap opera version of Baywatch, but will now look into this.
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