We're a nation of crime scenesters. Australia has a long-enduring fascination with the guys on the wrong side of the law and David Michod's Animal Kingdom the film that wowed Sundance continues the tradition. But while the film plays into the Melbourne crime world mythology that Australians have found so captivating, it is also a deliberate and long-overdue antidote to our habit of turning criminals into celebrities.
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At 17, Joshua J' Cody (James Frecheville) already has the sunken eyes and stripped look of someone who has seen too much. After the death of his mother, J is left to find his place among his estranged criminal family, particularly his uncles, the Cody boys: temperamental speed fiend Craig Cody (Sullivan Stapleton), fresh-faced and weak-kneed Darren Cody (Luke Ford) and in-hiding armed robber Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn). Barry Baz' Brown (Joel Edgerton) is a mate of Pope's, feeling his way to a fresh start for himself and betraying signs of genuine affection for J (with the offer of some pearls of hygiene-related wisdom). Watching ever vigilantly over them all is J's grandmother Smurf (Jacki Weaver), with whom the boys share an unhealthy intimacy. There is something not quite right with this family portrait.
First blood is spilt, stalemates broken, and tensions between the family and the police erupt. Forced into a corner, J finds himself together with his hapless girlfriend in the midst of a bloody battle. With J's world spiralling out of control, senior cop in standard issue moustache Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce) steps in to offer him a way out.
It's a superb script, written and directed by first-timer Michod, that smashes the mould of the Australian crime drama. The casting of Frecheville is testament to Michod's resistance to sexing up: Frecheville is a newcomer who looks uncomfortable in his own spotty skin let alone as a leading man. Following a character like J nervous, silent, secretive into the web of the criminal underworld is as chilling as it ought to be. Animal Kingdom expertly dodges the clichs of the form and therefore finds in the form a newfound power to knock the wind out of you.
That's when it's not busy tying your stomach in knots: Animal Kingdom is permeated by the feeling of sinking dread that was so enthralling in the Edgerton brothers' The Square. It's not too far off from the feeling that Constable Leckie describes to Smurf in a scene in the film, the feeling of knowing that they'll get you one of these days an emotional temperature that fans of another particular crime saga know as the Heat'. The tone is set brilliantly by its opening credits sequence, accompanied by composer Antony Partos's sinister synths. Patmos's score is stunning throughout in fact: the undoing of the Cody family is set to a dark waltz, the dance they knew they'd have to dance.
