Animal Kingdom (film)


Animal Kingdom is a 2010 Australian crime drama film written and directed by David Michôd and starring Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, James Frecheville, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, and Sullivan Stapleton.
Michôd's script was inspired by events which involved the Pettingill criminal family of Melbourne, Victoria. In 1991, two brothers Trevor Pettingill and Victor Peirce were acquitted in the 1988 shooting murder of two Victorian police officers.
Animal Kingdom was critically acclaimed. It received 36 awards and 39 nominations, and Jacki Weaver received multiple awards for her performance, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

After his mother overdoses, 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 Melbourne crime family 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 and knowingly claim he has a gun, and shoot him dead. Angry and distraught, Pope and Craig want revenge and ask J to steal a Commodore and take it to Darren's place. The car is then planted in the middle of a night-time street as a lure. Two policemen are soon drawn 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. 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 Ezra. Ezra 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 smothers her to death to silence 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 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". 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

The film is loosely inspired by the real life Pettingill family and by the Walsh Street police shootings that occurred in Melbourne in 1988. Director David Michôd 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, Film Victoria, Screen NSW and Showtime Australia. 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 Melbourne 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 formats on 13 October 2010. The Blu-ray release available from Madman is region-free.

Reception

Animal Kingdom grossed $4,350,187 in Australia, $1,044,039 in North America and $1,399,756 elsewhere for a total of $6,793,982.
Animal Kingdom received overwhelming critical acclaim, especially for the performances of Weaver and Mendelsohn. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 156 reviews with an average rating of 8/10. 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, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
David Stratton said on At the Movies:
Stratton and co-host Margaret Pomeranz both gave the film four and a half stars.
Quentin Tarantino listed Animal Kingdom as his third favourite film of 2010, behind Toy Story 3 and The Social Network.
In 2015, the film was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by The Guardian.

Accolades

Animal Kingdom received 18 nominations for the 2010 Australian Film Institute Awards, 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 for the 68th Golden Globe Awards. 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.
AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipientsResult
Academy Awards27 February 2011Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Film
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best DirectionDavid Michôd
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Original ScreenplayDavid Michôd
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best ActorBen Mendelsohn
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best ActorJames Frecheville
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best ActressJacki Weaver
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Supporting ActorJoel Edgerton
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Supporting ActorGuy Pearce
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Supporting ActorSullivan Stapleton
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Supporting ActressLaura Wheelwright
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best Young ActorJames Frecheville
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best CinematographyAdam Arkapaw
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Best EditingLuke Doolan
AACTA Awards
11 December 2010Reader's Choice
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best Film
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best CinematographyAdam Arkapaw
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best SoundSam Petty, Rob Mackenzie, Philippe Decrausaz,
Leah Katz, Brooke Trezise and Richard Pain
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best ScoreAntony Partos and Sam Petty
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best Production DesignJo Ford
Australian Film Institute Members Awards11 December 2010Best Costume DesignCappi Ireland
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards20 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards20 December 2010Most Promising FilmmakerDavid Michôd
Golden Globe Awards16 January 2011Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best ActorBen Mendelsohn
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best DirectorDavid Michôd
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best ActressJacki Weaver
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best EditingLuke Doolan
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best Film
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best ScreenplayDavid Michôd
Inside Film Awards14 November 2010Best SoundRobert Mackenzie, Philippe Decrausaz
and Sam Petty
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards16 December2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards12 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
National Board of Review Awards2 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Online Film Critics Society Awards3 January 2011Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards14 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Satellite Awards19 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Satellite Awards19 December 2010Best Film
Satellite Awards19 December 2010Best DirectorDavid Michôd
Saturn Award23 June 2011Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver
Sundance Film Festival30 January 2010World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards6 December 2010Best Supporting ActressJacki Weaver

Adaptations

Literature

's novel, Animal Kingdom, A Crime Story, is based on the film.

Television

The American cable network TNT developed an eponymous TV series inspired by the film, with John Wells as a producer, starring Ellen Barkin, Scott Speedman, Shawn Hatosy, Ben Robson, Jake Weary, Finn Cole, Daniella Alonso, and Molly Gordon.