Review of Animal Kingdom (2010) by Allen G — 15 May 2013

Some very cool moments and a generally memorable experience, Animal Kingdom is one of the better modern crime thrillers through its emphasis on family ties and control and the sharp twists that occur in reality.

The performances are good but I would have liked a little more from the script in some cases- A little less emphasis on J and some more on other members of the family would have aided this one greatly. I understand the pacing but I'm not sure that I fully agreed with it- this one captured the subtleties of human behaviour so well that it could have sped up a bit without compromising the integrity of the script.

It's not that original- fairly predictable for the most part actually but it really succeeds with it's realistic depictions of the events on show and manages to have it's own separate place within the genre. I wouldn't say that it stands out per se but it doesn't fall in with the crowd either.

Certainly a good film that's well worth a watch but it's simply not confident enough to be anything more- it underestimates its abilities in some senses and then tries to make up for it and in doing so, creates some flaws that I really would have liked to have seen be weeded out. Nonetheless, not bad at all.