Animal Kingdom

[Icehaven]

SPOILERS ABOUND
Anyone else seen this yet? (if you're unfamiliar it's an Australian criminal family drama, part Sopranos part Gomorrah, that got into some trouble in Oz due to part of it being based

Spoiler alert

on the real unsolved murder of 2 policemen

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) Apparently Melbourne aren't very happy about what they see as being made to look like the crime capital of Australia, so I thought it was going to make it look like Chicago circa 1935 or something, but it really doesn't, it's just about one family of 7 or so people, and it could be set anywhere if you don't know Melbourne. So it wasn't quite what I was expecting, although I don't know what I was expecting really. I think I thought it was going to be 'bigger', somehow, but I found it incredibly claustrophobic, I guess the apparent banality of their lives is part of the point. It all looks so tired and shabby too, which in hindsight I think really goes with the end of days sort of feeling. There's some good performances (I thought Pope was particularly good, but bit surprised the Gran is up for an Oscar) And thinking about it now I think the beginning, the very very beginning, is a really good scene setter in terms of the disposition of the main character. Some gangstery/criminal cliches are present and correct (the psycho ultraviolent brother, the coked up nutty one, the sensible one who wanted to go straight who obviously gets killed first etc.) But overall it was alright, maybe not as amazing as some reviews are making out. And Guy Pearce is nicely subtle too.

[lipsink]

Yeah, the Pope guy is bloody brilliant. A terrifying nutcase. The 'All Out Of Love' scene is particularly great as is the ending. I'm suprised too that the mother is up for an Oscar as I thought there were better performances in the film.

[Phil Colons]

Isn't it based on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pettingill_family ?

The TV series Underbelly covered similar ground,mainly the Melboune drug wars between Carl Williams and the Moran family.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Spoilers:

Just back from seeing it now, I didn't plan to but a friend came up for the afternoon and we were limited on what we could see time wise. But I'm very glad we did catch it, there's some incredibly tense scenes in it, and as mentioned, the acting is great pretty much across the board. I thought the gran deserved the Oscar nom too, okay it's a fairly non-showy part most of the time, but towards the end it becomes apparent just how devious she is, and the scene

Spoiler alert

where she puts a hit out on her own grandson was shockingly chilling.

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Infact my only minor issue with it was that the guy who played Josh wasn't that sympathetic - the role was well acted at times, and again, especially towards the end, but all too often he was a little blank and emotionless. That may be the fault of the director rather than the actor himself though. I was caught off guard by 'the twist', too,

Spoiler alert

I thought it would all hinge on what he would say in court, so the ending came as quite a surprise. And I wonder what would happen next - if they'd help him cover it up, or if he'd end up being imprisoned.

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The TV series Underbelly covered similar ground,mainly the Melboune drug wars between Carl Williams and the Moran family.

It's very different to Underbelly, the first series of which I enjoyed before it went too OTT. This is far more claustrophobic and centers around the five main characters (ish), compared to the much larger cast and scope of Underbelly.

[Icehaven]

Spoilers

Infact my only minor issue with it was that the guy who played Josh wasn't that sympathetic - the role was well acted at times, and again, especially towards the end, but all too often he was a little blank and emotionless. That may be the fault of the director rather than the actor himself though.

I thought that too, he's almost irritatingly so, however that's also what I was meant by the opening being very telling; he's casually sitting watching TV next to his mother who we presume is alseep until the paramedics walk in and we realise she's actually dying of a Heroin overdose, and he keeps half an eye on the TV as they try and fail to save her. His blankness throughout the rest of the film (except for the moment he realises Pope killed his girlfriend) could be attributable to supressed grief at his mother's death, or his borderline nonchalance apparent as she was dying suggests either that he's grown up that way because of the difficult family life he's obviously had,(and the resultant lack of genuine familial love) and/or that it's a screen to hide behind, a safe setting to filter the world through and stop the things he's exposed to getting to him. Either way after the end I thought it makes more sense.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I thought this was a very good film, not as dramatic as I expected but plenty of tension, surprises and good acting. The only thing I didn't really like was the iffy audio (couldn't understand what they were mumbling about half the time).