Animal Kingdom

In David Michod's stunning thriller bringing old styled suspense and mixing it with beautiful cinematography, thus creating a masterpiece of its age. The film consists of some very generic conventions, for example the ambiguous nature of Pope resembles that of Bill in Kill Bill, Harry Lime in The Third Man and also the man in the shower scene of Psycho. All of these characters are very stereotypical of the thriller genre, they are the building blocks for mysterious thriller. Without enigma the film would seem to rushed and anti-climactic whereas with the use of enigma films tend to have an uneasiness about them which makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.



The use of dim ambient and non-ambient lighting is very effective throughout the film. The scene when Pope is carrying J's dead girlfriend the mise-en-scene combined with beautiful camera angles, non-diegetic sounds and narrow dim lights helps illustrate the swell of emotions between the characters, this is clear to the audience.


The film seems to appeal mostly towards seventeen to eighteen year olds. This may be because the film follows a young boy who faces issues felt by teens/youth, yet the film also tackles controversial taboos like drugs, crime and even love without being cliché. Another reason why the film attracts a teen audience is because it isn’t too patronising, the twists and turns throughout the film leave themselves unexplained which enables the viewer to engage with the film.



The film challenges common thriller conventions, for example the killing in the car park. This wide open space rejects all common thriller settings and helps illustrate how the police force have no moral boundaries and will show no retaliation. There is also an inter-textual reference between this killing and the killing of Melanie in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. The wide open spaces, the extreme ambient lighting, it almost gives a feeling of realism to the scene.

J’s underacting gives another sense of realism to the film, showing the true nature of common teenagers. Also this continual silence could also represent J’s innocents whilst he is surrounded by a family driven by crime.
 The title of the film "Animal Kingdom" is wierdly rienforced by the Incestuous nature of the mother, this helps represent the unity within the family like a pack of lions in the wild.