Animal Kingdom (film)

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This article is about the 2010 film. For other pages with similar names, see Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom
Animal kingdom poster.jpg
Theater release poster
Directed by David Michôd
Produced by Liz Watts
Written by David Michôd
Starring Ben Mendelsohn
Joel Edgerton
Guy Pearce
Luke Ford
Jacki Weaver
Sullivan Stapleton
James Frecheville
Music by Antony Partos
Cinematography Adam Arkapaw
Edited by Luke Doolan
Production
company
Screen Australia
Porchlight Films
Film Victoria
Screen NSW
Fulcrum Media Finance
Showtime Australia
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Release date
  • 22 January 2010 (2010-01-22) (Sundance)
  • 3 June 2010 (2010-06-03)
Running time
 113 minutes
Country Australia
Language English
Budget $5 million[1]
Box office $6.8 million[2]

Animal Kingdom is a 2010 Australian crime 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, Australia. In 1991, two brothers Trevor Pettingill and Victor Peirce (along with two other men: Anthony Leigh Farrell and Peter David McEvoy) 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, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.[3]

Plot[edit]

After his mother overdoses, 17-year-old Joshua "J" Cody (James Frecheville) asks his estranged grandmother, Janine "Smurf" Cody (Jacki Weaver), 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 the oldest son, Andrew "Pope" Cody (Ben Mendelsohn), who is in hiding. The volatile middle brother, Craig (Sullivan Stapleton), deals drugs successfully enough to have bought the house for his mother. The youngest brother, Darren (Luke Ford), 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 him that renegade cops on the armed robbery squad are on the look out 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 and shoot him dead. Angry and distraught, Pope and Craig want revenge, and ask J to steal a Commodore and bring 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, recognizes J's predicament and begins to lean on him. The three are later released from custody, but J returns with his girlfriend Nicky to her parents' home.

Craig, who has avoided being picked up by the police, Pope, Darren and Smurf meet at a diner, where they recognize J as the weak link. When told by Smurf to give himself up for questioning, Craig panics, and meets a friend in rural Bendigo. He learns that the house is already being monitored, and as the police arrive tries to flee through a field but is gunned down. Pope and Darren take J to meet their solicitor Ezra. He coaches him to not tell the police anything and pressure him to break up with Nicky, which he 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, where Pope gives her heroin, questions her, then smothers her to death to keep her silent.

When J returns to Smurf's house the next morning he discovers Nicky's bracelet outside the house. He calls Nicky's phone, and realising something is not right, 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 being 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 has found his place in the world (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 again, 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 silenced Smurf.

Cast[edit]

  • James Frecheville 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.
  • Ben Mendelsohn as Andrew 'Pope' Cody, the psychopathic oldest of the brothers and a robber on the run from the police. His best friend and partner-in-crime is Barry Brown.
  • Guy Pearce as Nathan Leckie, one of the few good police officers in Melbourne. He spends the movie trying to convince J not to go into crime.
  • Jacki Weaver as Janine 'Smurf' Cody, the leader of the family and the mother of Pope, Darren and Craig, and the grandmother of J.
  • Joel Edgerton as Barry 'Baz' Brown, Pope's best friend/partner-in-crime. He and his wife Cathy are close friends of the Cody family.
  • Sullivan Stapleton as Craig Cody, the middle brother, a successful drug dealer. He and Darren try to protect J from Pope, who hates him.
  • Luke Ford 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 as Nicole "Nicky" Henry, J's girlfriend.
  • Dan Wyllie as Ezra White, the family's solicitor who hates Leckie. The character Ezra White originally appeared as the central character in Michod's 2006 short drama film Ezra White, LL.B., also played by Wyllie.
  • Anthony Hayes as Det. Justin Norris, Leckie's partner who helps J with his situation.
  • Mirrah Foulkes as Catherine 'Cathy' Brown, Baz's wife.
  • Justin Rosniak as Det. Randall Roache
  • Susan Prior as Alicia Henry
  • Clayton Jacobson as Gus Emery
  • Anna Lise Phillips as Justine Hopper

Production[edit]

The film is loosely inspired by the real life Pettingill family, and by the Walsh Street police shootings that occurred in Melbourne in 1988.[4] 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."[1] 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.[1] The final version of Animal Kingdom did not contain any of the dialogue featured in Michôd's script for J.[5]

Animal Kingdom was filmed in the Melbourne metropolitan area.[6] The outside funeral scene was filmed in Ivanhoe East, Victoria.[7]

Soundtrack[edit]

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.[8]

No. Title Length
1. "Animal Kingdom" 2:36
2. "This Is Where I Was" (composed by Sam Petty) 1:43
3. "Barry Brown" 2:07
4. "Prahran" 2:38
5. "Ivanhoe" 4:09
6. "Hawthorn" (composed by Sam Petty) 3:48
7. "Black Pools" 1:34
8. "Fairfield" 2:03
9. "Craig Cody" 3:00
10. "Janine's Little Boy" 2:46
11. "Nicky Henry" 2:33
12. "Descent" (composed by Antony Partos and David McCormack) 5:11
13. "Then and Now" 2:31
14. "Janine Cody" 3:52
15. "Melbourne" (composed by Antony Partos and Sam Petty) 3:11
16. "Joshua Cody" 4:03
17. "End" (composed by Jona Ma) 2:21
Total length: 50:07

Release[edit]

Animal Kingdom premiered at the 26th Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2010.[9] It later opened in Australia on 3 June 2010.[10][11]

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.[2] 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.[10]

Reception[edit]

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.[12]

Animal Kingdom received overwhelming critical acclaim, with Weaver's performance being singled out. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review, "Certified Fresh", based on 152 reviews with an average rating of 8 out of 10. The critical consensus is: "With confident pacing, a smart script, and a top-notch cast, Animal Kingdom represents the best the Australian film industry has to offer."[13]

David Stratton said on At the Movies: "It's so lovely to see a really good Australian film. And we're not admiring this because it's an Australian film, because it's a very good film," adding, "The revelation here is Jacki Weaver, always a fine actor but seldom revealing the depths of character she does here. All the performances are superb, down to the small parts – like Dan Wyllie as the family's lawyer and Anna Lisa Phillips [sic] as Josh's barrister." Stratton and co-host Margaret Pomeranz both gave the film four and a half stars.[14]

Quentin Tarantino listed Animal Kingdom as his third favourite film of 2010, behind Toy Story 3 and The Social Network.[15]

In 2015, the film was named as one of the top 50 films of the decade so far by The Guardian.[16]

Accolades[edit]

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.[17] 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.[18]

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result
Academy Awards[19] 27 February 2011 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
AACTA Awards
(53rd Australian Film Institute Awards)[20]		 11 December 2010 Best Film Won
Best Direction David Michôd Won
Best Original Screenplay David Michôd Won
Best Actor Ben Mendelsohn Won
James Frecheville Nominated
Best Actress Jacki Weaver Won
Best Supporting Actor Joel Edgerton Won
Guy Pearce Nominated
Sullivan Stapleton Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Laura Wheelwright Nominated
Best Young Actor James Frecheville Nominated
Best Cinematography Adam Arkapaw Nominated
Best Editing Luke Doolan Won
Reader's Choice Won
Australian Film Institute Members Awards[20] 11 December 2010 Best Film Won
Best Cinematography Adam Arkapaw Nominated
Best Sound Sam Petty, Rob Mackenzie, Philippe Decrausaz,
Leah Katz, Brooke Trezise and Richard Pain		 Nominated
Best Score Antony Partos and Sam Petty Won
Best Production Design Jo Ford Nominated
Best Costume Design Cappi Ireland Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[21] 20 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Most Promising Filmmaker David Michôd Nominated
Golden Globe Awards[22] 16 January 2011 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Inside Film Awards[23] 14 November 2010 Best Actor Ben Mendelsohn Won
Best Director David Michôd Won
Best Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Best Editing Luke Doolan Nominated
Best Film Nominated
Best Screenplay David Michôd Nominated
Best Sound Robert Mackenzie, Philippe Decrausaz
and Sam Petty		 Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards[24] 16 December2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards[25] 12 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Won
National Board of Review Awards[18] 2 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards[26] 3 January 2011 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards[27] 14 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Satellite Awards[28] 19 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Won
Best Film Nominated
Best Director David Michôd Nominated
Saturn Award 23 June 2011 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated
Sundance Film Festival[29] 30 January 2010 World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic Won
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[30] 6 December 2010 Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver Nominated

TV adaptation[edit]

Main article: Animal Kingdom (TV series)

TNT developed a TV show inspired by the film with John Wells as a producer.[31] This show stars Ellen Barkin, Scott Speedman, Shawn Hatosy. Ben Robson, Jake Weary, Finn Cole, Daniella Alonso and Molly Gordon.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Animal Kingdom: fierce creatures". Encore Magazine. 1 June 2010. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  2. ^ a b "Animal Kingdom (2010) Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 February 2010. 
  3. ^ "Animal Kingdom (2010)". IMDb. Retrieved 30 June 2014. 
  4. ^ "ME 2010 040 13 Sundance Awards-Script". ITN News. 1 February 2010. Archived from the original on 29 June 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2010. 
  5. ^ Animal Kingdom DVD "Making of..." featurette
  6. ^ "Animal Kingdom". onlymelbourne.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2010. 
  7. ^ "Animal Kingdom press kit" (PDF). p. 9. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
  8. ^ "Animal Kingdom: Antony Partos, Milan: Music". Amazon.com. Retrieved 15 August 2011. 
  9. ^ "2010 Sundance Film Festival: Animal Kingdom". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on 1 December 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  10. ^ a b "Animal Kingdom: Official Film Site". Retrieved 26 September 2010. 
  11. ^ "Animal Kingdom AU Review". IGN. 2 May 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  12. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=main&id=animalkingdom.htm
  13. ^ "Animal Kingdom Movie Reviews, Pictures". Flixster. Retrieved 10 January 2011. 
  14. ^ "At the Movies: Animal Kingdom". Abc.net.au. 2 June 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  15. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly. "Quentin Tarantino's Surprising Choices for Best Films of 2010". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 20 January 2011. 
  16. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (5 January 2015). "Peter Bradshaw’s top 50 films of the demi-decade". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2015. 
  17. ^ Dennehy, Luke (12 December 2010). "Melbourne crime thriller Animal Kingdom earns ten AFI gongs". News.com.au. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  18. ^ a b "David Fincher's THE SOCIAL NETWORK Tops National Board of Review Awards 2010". ALT Film Guide. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
  19. ^ "Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  20. ^ a b "AFI Award Winners and Nominees". afi.org.au. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  21. ^ "Chicago Film Critics Awards – 2008–2010". Chicago Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
  22. ^ "Nominations and Winners – 2010". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Archived from the original on 20 September 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  23. ^ "2010 Kodak Inside Film Awards Sydney Nominees". ifawards.com. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
    "2010 Kodak Inside Film Awards Sydney Nominees". ifawards.com. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  24. ^ Adams, Ryan (16 December 2010). "The Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards". AwardsDaily. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  25. ^ "36th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards". Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Retrieved 30 January 2010. 
  26. ^ Stone, Sarah (27 December 2010). "Online Film Critics Society Nominations". awardsdaily.com. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
    Stone, Sarah (3 January 2011). "The Social Network Named Best Film by the Online Film Critics". awardsdaily.com. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  27. ^ "2010 Awards". San Diego Film Critics Society. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  28. ^ "2010 Nominations" (PDF). International Press Academy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 July 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  29. ^ "2010 Sundance Film Festival Announces Awards" (PDF). sundance.org. 30 January 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  30. ^ "The 2010 WAFCA Award Winners". Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association. Retrieved 30 January 2011. 
  31. ^ Wagmeister, Elizabeth. "Ellen Barkin & Scott Speedman to Star in TNT’s ‘Animal Kingdom’". Variety.com. Retrieved August 18, 2015. 

External links[edit]

Awards
Preceded by
The Maid		 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema Dramatic
2010		 Succeeded by
Happy, Happy
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