Animal Kingdom!

With great anticipation I have been eagerly awaiting the release of "Animal Kingdom" which stars Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Pearce, Jackie Weaver, Clayton Jacobson ("Kenny's" real life brother), Joel Edgerton (who we see too little of in the film) and a group of lesser known actors. I am a huge fan of Ben Mendelsohn and the uniquely Australian characters he plays but likeable is not the best way to describe his character in Animal Kingdom "Pope", who is rather a chilling and unrepentant psychopath and there are far too many scenes where this is revealed.

This film centres around a seemingly ordinary suburban family and is said to be loosely based upon the events leading up to the "Walsh Street" killings. The family is chock full of unpredictable and unsavoury characters adept in making a living from robbing banks and the like.  We see Guy Pearce enter as a chief investigator in to event's surrounding the "Cody" family as he tries to intervene and rescue the youngest member of the clan from a life of crime. "Smurf", the Cody families mother played by Jackie Weaver is equally chilling to Ben Mendelsohn's "Pope" in her portrayal of a seemingly innocent surburan Mum although we have a sense that something sinister lurks beneath the surface in the way she placates her boys. Nothing comes in between "Smurf" and her family, not even extended family as we soon find out.

I liked this film a lot as it didn't glamourise unsavoury characters from the underworld unlike the "Underbelly" franchise. This family is not glamourous in any sense of the word but rather this film shows the frightening and unpredictable side to characters that are able to commit acts of extreme violence and perversion which is evident in any scene Ben Mendelsohn acts in.

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