''Animal Kingdom'' is a 2010 Australian

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

written and directed by

David Michôd David Michôd ( ; born 30 November 1972) is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed crime drama '' Animal Kingdom'' (2010) and dystopian drama '' The Rover'' (2014). ...

and starring

Ben Mendelsohn Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn (born 3 April 1969) is an Australian actor. He first rose to prominence in Australia for his breakout role in ''The Year My Voice Broke'' (1987) and since then he has had roles in films such as '' Animal Kingdom'' (2010) ...

Joel Edgerton Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his appearance in the ''Star Wars'' films ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) as a young Owen Lars, a role he reprised i ...

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...

James Frecheville James Aitken Frecheville (; born 14 April 1991) is an Australian actor known for his lead role in the Australian film '' Animal Kingdom'' as Joshua "J" Cody, a confused teenager and youngest member of a criminal family in Melbourne's underworld. ...

Luke Ford Luke Ford (born 26 March 1981) is a Canadian-Australian actor. His career began in television in 2000 and his first film role was in 2006 before being cast in '' The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'' in 2008. Ford's regular television roles ...

Jacki Weaver Jacqueline Ruth Weaver (born 25 May 1947) is an Australian theatre, film and television actress. Weaver emerged in the 1970s as a symbol of the Australian New Wave through her work in Ozploitation films such as '' Stork'' (1971), ''Alvin Purp ...

, and

Sullivan Stapleton Sullivan Stapleton (born 14 June 1977) is an Australian actor who is best known for his roles in the television series ''The Secret Life of Us'', '' Strike Back'' and '' Animal Kingdom''. He also starred in the NBC crime drama '' Blindspot''. S ...

. Michôd's script was inspired by events that involved the Pettingill criminal family of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Victoria. In 1991, two brothers

Trevor Pettingill The Pettingill family is a Melbourne-based criminal family,Fears of gangland war in ...

and

Victor Peirce Victor George Peirce (11 November 1958 – 1 May 2002) was an Australian gangster from Melbourne, Victoria. Peirce was a member of the Pettingill family, which was headed by matriarch and former Richmond brothel owner Kath Pettingill. Walsh S ...

(along with two other men: Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy) were acquitted in the 1988 shooting murder of two Victorian police officers. The film was critically acclaimed and Jacki Weaver received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

After his mother

overdoses A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

, 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody asks his estranged grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody, for help, and she invites him to move in with her. Smurf is the affectionate matriarch of a

crime family A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activ ...

that uses her home as a base. Her home is also being watched by cops who are looking for her oldest son, Andrew "Pope" Cody, who is in hiding. The volatile middle brother, Craig, deals drugs successfully enough to have bought the house for his mother. The youngest brother, Darren, follows the lead of his siblings, while family friend "Baz" leads the gang, which specializes in armed robbery. Craig takes J along to meet with a crooked cop, from the drug squad, who tells Craig that renegade cops on the armed-robbery squad are on the lookout for all of them. Later, Baz goes to meet Pope at a shopping centre, where they discuss quitting crime and going straight. As Baz gets in his car to leave, police approach, falsely claim he has a gun, and shoot him dead. Angry and distraught, Pope and Craig want revenge and ask J to steal a

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

and take it to Darren's place. The car is then parked after 2:00 am in the middle of the street as a lure. Two policemen are called to the scene, where they are ambushed and shot dead by Pope and Craig. The next day, Pope, Darren, and J are taken in for questioning, where J meets Detective Senior Sergeant Nathan Leckie, who also leads the armed-robbery squad. Leckie, one of the few non-corrupt police officers, recognises J's predicament and begins to lean on him. The three are later released from custody, and J returns with his girlfriend, Nicky, to her parents' home. Craig, who has avoided being picked up by the police, meets Pope, Darren, and Smurf at a diner, where they realise J is the weak link. After Smurf suggests Craig give himself up for questioning, he panics and goes to visit a friend in rural

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

. Craig learns that the house is already being monitored, and as the police arrive he tries to flee through a field but is gunned down. Pope and Darren take J to meet their

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, Ezra. He coaches J to not tell the police anything and pressures him to break up with Nicky, which J does. Leckie takes J into custody again, where he proposes that J be moved to witness protection, but J turns down the offer. Meanwhile, Nicky, unsure what to do, shows up at Smurf's home, looking for J. Pope gives her heroin, questions her, then suffocates her. When J returns to Smurf's house the next morning he discovers Nicky's bracelet outside the house. He calls Nicky's phone and hearing it ring from the backyard, flees to Nicky's parents' house. Pope gets Nicky's address from Darren and arrives in time to intercept J. J flees on foot and is taken into a safe house. With Craig and Baz dead, Pope and Darren imprisoned, and J potentially the star witness for the prosecution, Smurf decides, "J needs ''to go''". Smurf uses her connections to procure J's address and persuades the corrupt cop to help her. Police from the drug squad then raid the safe house. J jumps a fence and returns to Smurf's house, saying he wishes to help free Pope and Darren from jail. To do this, the family's

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

then coaches J's answers. After his day in court, Leckie sees J before his departure from the safe hotel and asks him if he's "worked out where he fits" (a reference to Leckie's animal-kingdom metaphor for J's predicament). Pope, Darren, and Smurf celebrate with champagne while being interviewed after their controversial acquittal. Smurf later sees Leckie in the supermarket and taunts him. Later, J returns to Smurf's home, asking to stay before going to his room. Pope enters and begins to talk to him but is cut off when J shoots him in the head. In the final scene, J returns to the living room and embraces a now-speechless Smurf.

Cast

as Joshua "J" Daniel Cody, Smurf's grandson and the nephew of "Pope", Craig and Darren. He becomes friends with Craig and Darren, but hates Pope. *

as Andrew "Pope" Cody, the psychopathic eldest brother and a robber on the run from the police. His best friend and partner-in-crime is Barry "Baz" Brown. *

as Detective Nathan Leckie, one of the few good police officers in Melbourne. He tries to convince "J" not to become a criminal. *

as Janine "Smurf" Cody, the matriarch of the family, "Pope", Darren and Craig's mother, and "J"'s grandmother. *

as Barry "Baz" Brown, "Pope"'s best friend and partner-in-crime. He and his wife Cathy are close friends of the Cody family. *

as Craig Cody, the middle brother and a successful drug dealer. He and Darren try to protect "J" from "Pope", who hates him. *

as Darren Cody, the youngest of the brothers. He is only a few years older than "J", and the two were best friends as children. He is the first of the brothers to warm up to "J". *

Laura Wheelwright Laura Wheelwright (born 10 September 1990) is an Australian actress best known for her role in the 2010 feature film '' Animal Kingdom.'' Career Wheelwright's first major acting credit was in ''Animal Kingdom'', a 2010 Australian film in which ...

as Nicole "Nicky" Henry, "J"'s girlfriend. *

Dan Wyllie Daniel Wyllie (born 1970) is an Australian stage, film and television actor. Wyllie began acting in theatre. Early life Wyllie grew up on Sydney's North Shore. He attended North Sydney Boys High School and the University of New South Wales, whe ...

as Ezra White, the family's solicitor who hates Leckie. The character Ezra White (also played by Wyllie) originally appeared as the central character in Michod's 2006 short drama film '' Ezra White, LL.B.'' * Anthony Hayes as Detective Justin Norris, Leckie's partner who helps "J" with his situation. *

Mirrah Foulkes Mirrah Foulkes is an Australian director, screenwriter, and film and television actress. She was raised on the Sunshine Coast, in South East Queensland, Australia. She has appeared in films such as '' Animal Kingdom'' (2010), ''Sleeping Beauty ...

as Catherine "Cathy" Brown, Baz's wife. *

Justin Rosniak Justin Rosniak (born 11 May 1977) is an Australian television and film actor, best known for his appearances in the television series '' Packed to the Rafters'', ''Police Rescue'', ''Squinters'' and ''Mr Inbetween''. Career Rosniak appeared ...

as Detective Randall Roache * Susan Prior as Alicia Henry * Clayton Jacobson as Gus Emery * Anna Lise Phillips as Justine Hopper

Production

The film is loosely inspired by the real life

Pettingill family The Pettingill family is a Melbourne-based criminal family,Fears of gangland war in ...

and by the

Walsh Street police shootings The Walsh Street police shootings were the 1988 murders of two Victoria Police officers: Constables Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20. Tynan and Eyre were responding to a report of an abandoned car when they were gunned down about 4:50am ...

that occurred in Melbourne in 1988. Director

was interested in the underworld in Melbourne and wrote a script titled ''J'' in December 2000. Working at Screen NSW Script Development, fellow producer Liz Watts saw potential in the script. Watts said, "It needed more characterization and structure, which he kind of agreed with. It was important to me that he recognize that there was still work to be done on it." Michôd then did a number of draft scripts gaining feedback from many different people in the film industry. Liz Watts then became a producer on the film with a budget of A$5 million from

Screen Australia Screen Australia is the Australian Federal Government's key funding body for the Australian screen production industry, created under the ''Screen Australia Act 2008''. From 1 July 2008 Screen Australia took over the functions of its predecess ...

, Film Victoria, Screen NSW and

Showtime Australia Showtime Movie Channels is a group of Australian pay-TV movie channels, available on the Foxtel, Optus and Austar TV platforms. The service consisted of five original channels (showtime premiere, showcase, showtime action, showtime comedy, showt ...

. The final version of ''Animal Kingdom'' did not contain any of the dialogue featured in Michôd's script for ''J''. ''Animal Kingdom'' was filmed in the

metropolitan area. The outside funeral scene was filmed in Ivanhoe East, Victoria.

Soundtrack

The film's original score was composed by Antony Partos with additional music composed by Sam Petty and David McCormack. It was released on 16 August 2010.

Release

''Animal Kingdom'' premiered at the 26th Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2010. It later opened in Australia on 3 June 2010. Internationally, the film has been sold to the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Canada and Eastern Europe. It was released in August 2010 in the United States and Latin America by Sony Pictures Classics, grossing a total of $1,030,288 in North America. It was released in Australia on DVD and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

formats on 13 October 2010. The Blu-ray release available from Madman is region-free.

Reception

Animal Kingdom grossed $5,000,018 in Australia, and $2,209,894 elsewhere for a worldwide total of $7,209,912. ''Animal Kingdom'' received overwhelming critical acclaim, especially for the performances of Weaver and Mendelsohn. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the movie a score of 96%, based on 163 reviews, and an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's critical consensus states: "With confident pacing, a smart script, and a top-notch cast, ''Animal Kingdom'' represents the best the Australian film industry has to offer." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

David Stratton David James Stratton (born 10 September 1939) is an English-Australian award-winning film critic, as both a journalist and interviewer, film historian and lecturer and television personality and producer. Life and career Born in Trowbridge, ...

said on '' At the Movies'': Stratton and co-host

Margaret Pomeranz Margaret Pomeranz (born 14 July 1944) is an Australian film critic, writer, producer and television personality. Early life Pomeranz was born Margeret Anne Jones-Owen on 14 July 1944 in Waverley, a suburb of Sydney. She was educated at the P ...

both gave the film four and a half stars.

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

listed ''Animal Kingdom'' as his third favourite film of 2010, behind ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to ''Toy Story 2'' (1999). It was d ...

'' and ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book ''The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking web ...

''. In 2015, the film was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Accolades

''Animal Kingdom'' received 18 nominations for the 2010

Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...

, across all major feature film categories – a record achievement. On 11 December 2010, ''Animal Kingdom'' won a record 10 awards. The film received several other film awards to Jacki Weaver, who was nominated for the

Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture is a Golden Globe Award that was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year. The for ...

for the

68th Golden Globe Awards The 68th Golden Globe Awards were broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on January 16, 2011, by NBC. The host was Ricky Gervais. The nominations were announced on December 14, 2010, by Josh Duhamel, Katie Holmes ...

. Weaver was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 83rd Academy Awards. It was named one of the Top Independent Films of 2010 at the

National Board of Review Awards The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

Adaptations

Literature

Stephen Sewell's novel, ''Animal Kingdom, A Crime Story'' (2010), is based on the film.

Television

The American cable network

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

developed an eponymous TV series inspired by the film, with John Wells as a producer, starring Ellen Barkin,

Scott Speedman Robert Scott Speedman (born September 1, 1975) is a British-Canadian actor. He is known for portraying Ben Covington in the coming-of-age drama television series '' Felicity'', Lycan–Vampire hybrid Michael Corvin in the gothic horror–actio ...

Shawn Hatosy Shawn Wayne Hatosy is an American film and television actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the films '' In & Out'', ''The Faculty'', '' Outside Providence'', '' Anywhere but Here'', ''The Cooler'', and ''Alpha Dog''. He is also w ...

Ben Robson Ben Robson (born 4 February 1984) is an English actor and model. Early life Robson was born and grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. His father worked in manufacturing. He has one younger brother and one younger sister. His sister works as ...

Jake Weary Jacob Weary (born February 14, 1990) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Luke Snyder in the CBS soap opera ''As the World Turns'', Vince Keeler in NBC's action-drama series '' Chicago Fire'', and for his role as Kevin Lebow in '' ...

Finn Cole Finlay Lewis J. Cole is an English actor from Kingston, London. He is known for his role in the BBC series ''Peaky Blinders'' as Michael Gray. He is currently starring as Joshua "J" Cody in TNT's '' Animal Kingdom'', and played young Jakob Tor ...

Daniella Alonso Daniella Alonso is an American actress and former fashion model. She has appeared in a number of horror films, including ''The Hills Have Eyes 2'' and '' Wrong Turn 2: Dead End''. Alonso was a regular cast member in the NBC post-apocalyptic seri ...

, and

Molly Gordon Molly June Gordon is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the drama TV series '' Animal Kingdom'' (2016–2018), as Nicky, and in the comedy films '' Life of the Party'' (2018) as Maddie, ''Booksmart'' (2019) as Triple A, and ...

References

External links

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