Animal Kingdom (2010)

Jack and I would have missed this had it not had an Oscar-nominated performance by supporting actress Jacki Weaver as the matriarch of a Melbourne crime family. And that would've been okay. Mean-spirited with no laughs, it does have a compelling opening scene. Black-out, noise of dogs barking and a game show on TV, fade in to two people on a couch, motionless. We were beginning to think something was wrong with the picture (we were watching a netflix DVD), until the paramedics arrive and tend to the woman on the left as the young man on the right moves out of their way, but he can't stop watching the show. They take away the woman, and the pimply young man, Josh (Eric Frecheville, in his second feature film), calls his grandmother (Weaver, many credits that I haven't seen) on the phone and tells her his mom has just died of a heroin overdose. He doesn't seem upset. His grandma isn't at all upset. He moves in with grandma and two uncles, and they talk about a third uncle who's on the lam. Senseless murders, check (one of which Jack predicted just before). Lies and double-crosses, check check. And we kept waiting for the big scene that got Weaver the nomination, like Viola Davis with snot on her face, crying, in Doubt. Can't say that we found it. Despite pretty good music by Antony Partos (and a clip of All Out of Love from 1980 by Air Supply--sorry about the commercial first), and scenes with the very talented Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential (1997), Memento (2000), Factory Girl (2006) as Andy Warhol, The Hurt Locker as Staff Sergeant Thompson, and The King's Speech as King Edward VIII, the one who abdicates) and Joel Edgerton (excellent in Kinky Boots (2005) and more), we didn't agree with rottentomatoes' falling all over it with 97% from critics and 80% from audiences (imdb gives it 75%) nor the other awards and nominations it has garnered so far. We weren't in bad moods or tired. We just didn't like it very much.