Australia has been churning out slightly above average crime thrillers lately. Animal Kingdom is supposed to be the best of the lot, it was a surprise hit at last year's Sundance. It has even scored an Oscar nomination for Jacki Weaver as the matriarch of a family of armed robbery enthusiasts.
I think it's kind of a bunk nomination though. I didn't find her particularly compelling. I wasn't scared of her like a lot of other people who saw this movie. It felt really one note to me and she kept wiggling her eyebrows to emphasize points she was making which I just found comical. I actually didn't find the entire movie all that engrossing. The lead actor spent most of the movie staring at his feet and mumbling which was really hard to understand since it was an Australian movie. He just couldn't carry the movie. His motivation is hard to determine and since you have almost no feel for his character none of his actions seem to have any forethought. The actors playing his uncles were pretty good though and Guy Pearce delivered a solid performance through his fake mustache (Seriously, it's one of the funnier mustaches I've seen lately) so it isn't an entirely unwatchable movie. The whole thing was pretty much just an Australian version of the 90's movie, Fresh. The plot isn't exactly the same but it's pretty close.
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