Animal Kingdom

After his mother dies of a heroin overdose, seventeen-year-old Joshua Cody moves in with the grandmother he barely knows, Janine, and her three adult sons in suburban Melbourne. The family earns its living from armed robbery, and the police, who have long wanted to bring the Cody brothers down, see the newly arrived grandson as a way in. Detective Nathan Leckie tries to turn Joshua into an informant, while his grandmother draws him deeper into the family's criminal world. Joshua has to work out where he stands and how to survive among people who recognise only strength.

Animal Kingdom was released in 2010 and runs just over an hour and fifty minutes. It is the first feature directed by David Michôd, who also wrote the screenplay, and it came before his later films The Rover, War Machine, The King and Christy. Liz Watts produced; the cast includes Jacki Weaver as Janine, Ben Mendelsohn as her eldest son Andrew, Sullivan Stapleton and Luke Ford as his brothers, Joel Edgerton as Baz Brown and Guy Pearce as Leckie.

Made for about five million dollars, it took roughly seven million at the worldwide box office, a modest return for a low-budget Australian crime drama. On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from around 63,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.8 from far fewer votes. Critics were more enthusiastic than either audience group, giving it 8 out of 10 across 160 reviews.