January 31, 2011

Animal Kingdom



Data
Title: Animal Kingdom
Year: 2010
Length: 113 minutes
Director: David Michôd
Writer: David Michôd
Starring: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frecheville, Laura Wheelwright
Music: Antony Partos (and non-original music)
Oscars: nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Weaver)
I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Synopsis: a teenager moves in with his bank-robbing uncles

My reaction
Concept:2/4 (Indifferent)
Story:2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters:1/4 (Bad) You get a sense of some of these guys being really interesting characters, but they never really come through clearly. No one has any background or motivation beyond what's necessary for the plot. The protagonist, meanwhile, is hardly even a character at all. If the movie didn't start with a voice-over by him, you probably couldn't tell he's supposed to be the protagonist.
Dialog:3/4 (Good)
Pacing:2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography:3/4 (Good)
Special effects/design:3/4 (Good)
Acting:4/4 (Great) There are moments of greatness. There's also a lot of just creepy stares or uncontrollable sobbing. In the end, though, I have to give the actors credit for creating the characters (because they certainly don't come from the writing).
Music:3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh, 2/4 (Indifferent)). Unpleasant people being unpleasant to each other. It's well made and fairly original - I just don't like this kind of movie (the humorless, cynical crime film) enough to like one that's anything less than amazing.
Objective Rating (Average):2.5/4 (Okay)

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