This is an Australian gangster film, although it is not made in the style that we expect for a gangster film. It concerns a family of brothers, all gangsters, ladied over by their mother, a plausibly appealing person, the moral part of who's psyche is missing. These guys don't wear suits, Godfather style, but lounge around the family bungalow seedily flaunting their tattoos, or in casual clothes. The story develops into a vendetta between them and the Melbourne police, after one of the brothers is shot by a policeman, and they shoot a couple of policemen in revenge. We see all this through the eyes of a young cousin who is sent to live with them after his mother dies of a drug overdose.
The film reminds me of Robert Aldrich's The Grissom Gang in that it is about a family gang run by the mother. Animal Kingdom is a very well-made film, with the camera frequently tracking slowly along the floor, or by a wall, as though peeping into the events of this family. These movements are accompanied by blocks of atonal music on the soundtrack. The brothers are not wild-eyed crazies like those in, say, Ride The High Country or The Grissom Gang, but one remains aware that they are capable of anything, although one, Pope, at first appearing unremarkable, emerges as the worst of them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment