Animal Kingdom

Back in the day, Australian cinema had a pretty robust reputation for great independent art films, thanks mostly to Peter Weir. His early work, like "Picnic at Hanging Rock", "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli" (great films all) were down under outgrowths of the seventies independent movement here in the states. Since then, you really don't hear much about groundbreaking Aussie cinema.
There is a lot of hype about a new Australian genre piece called "Animal Kingdom". There's a big awards campaign afoot and thus I got a chance to catch it.
The film opens with a young man sitting on a couch next to his dead Mum (heroin OD), watching the Aussie version of Deal or No Deal. This odd opening kicks off a bizarre crime drama, gritty and violent and sometimes illogical. The young man goes to stay with his criminally incestuous Grandmother and her four sociopath sons, his uncles. These are the people who we are asked to root for. The cops are on the corrupt side and everybody (and I mean everybody) is paranoid. By the time it's all over, lots of family members have died. Those that are left share a nice hug. Family is family after all. This film is alternately gripping and silly but if you like the crime genre, it's a pretty fun ride. Australian character actress Jacki Weaver (the matriarch of the crime family) is being pushed for a Supporting Actress Oscar. She's good, but not that good. I've seen three or four supporting performances that are far better and the awards season hasn't even gone into high gear.