Animal Kingdom
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: August 13, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
It's a distinctive, ominous and hypnotic work of cinema. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Faultlessly acted by top Australian talent, including Guy Pearce, Ben Mendelsohn and Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom marries heightened emotionality with cool contemporary style. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A phenomenal debut feature with a terrific title, David Michôd's Animal Kingdom is both a study in Darwinian survival-in this case survival of the shrewdest-and a group portrait of ruthless predators in the underworld of Melbourne, Australia. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleAmy Biancolli
It's a remarkable film: A gritty, gut-churning, crime thriller based on a true story. Its greatness lies in its unwavering fidelity to human nature and the unstoppable laws of the wild. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Don't be fooled: In this unpeaceable kingdom, the den mama is also ready to eat her young. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
The film's depiction of the raw fear lurking below the brothers' braggadocio is the most pronounced emotion in a movie whose focus on the personalities of its criminals suggests an Australian answer to "Goodfellas," minus the wise-guy humor. Read full review
90
NPRBob Mondello
First-time writer/director David Michod reportedly worked for eight years on his screenplay, deepening its tale of a violently dysfunctional family until its gangster conventions feel as if they're in the service of a modern-day Greek tragedy. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazinePam Grady
This could have been a slick little thriller. Instead, it evolves into the unfolding of an epic tragedy. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
A contemplative crime drama with a high startlement quotient. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
The naturalistic style Michod employs adds to the sense of dread. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
A densely textured moral universe that makes good on his metaphoric title-and in this case, the animals are perfectly willing to eat their young. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchMoira Macdonald
All of the performances are skilled, and yet it's Weaver (a veteran screen, television and stage actress in Australia) who, in a smaller role, creates the character who stays with you. Read full review
88
ObserverSara Vilkomerson
Among the most gripping, well-paced, acted and directed, and generally thrilling of anything that I've seen (yet) this year. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Like "The Square," the startling Down Under noir released a few months ago, Animal Kingdom explores the down and dirty side of human nature, fraught with greed, suspicion, and betrayal. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Animal Kingdom moves with a brisk efficiency - Michôd trusts the viewer and doesn't waste time with unnecessary back story - and the plot twists and turns at brutal speed. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
The choicest performance in Animal Kingdom is Weaver's sing-song sinister matriarch of the Cody clan, a cheery sort with the benign nickname "Mama Smurf." Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Animal Kingdom joins in the tradition of brutally unsentimental Australian crime dramas like "The Boys," in which the stakes are low, except to the people staring down the barrel of a gun. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon WiseFeb 21, 2011
A dark rites-of-passage story meets lethal Shakespearean drama, with low-key performances that artfully get under the skin. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
A naturalistic drama rich in psychology and attention to details. There's no glamour here, but one false move by anyone can result in death, so tension fills nearly every scene. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua Rothkopf
The strength of Animal Kingdom is its slow-building fatalism; the criminals' luck runs out, but then finds depressing extension via an out-of-left-field collaborator. It's a movie that has very little faith in authority, not even in Guy Pearce's righteous detective. The only law here is Darwin's. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Most crime stories are content to simply exist, wallowing in their own base violence. But David Michôd's fierce debut takes the genre apart, finding a reason for the madness that propels it. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
In many ways, Animal Kingdom could have become a stylish but routine cops-and-robbers tale. Instead, Michôd shapes this film into a memorable character study about uncaged beasts. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorAndy Klein
All very grim and unrelenting; Michôd generates some nail-biting suspense, though it's not the sort of experience that many people are likely to enjoy. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Writer-director David Michôd catches you in a vise and squeezes - hard. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
You probably won't see a better directorial debut this year than David Michôd's Animal Kingdom. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Animal Kingdom isn't perfect: Some performance moments are over-ripe, and there's an episode of arbitrary cruelty that's excessively creepy. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie Merry
The most troubling aspect of the story -- and its most compelling -- is the emphasis on banal, everyday life. Read full review
75
MovielineMichelle Orange
Because Animal Kingdom is so richly suffused with atmosphere and style, you could almost float right past the deficiencies in its story in an admiring trance. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
The film is shaky as a procedural, and the level of official corruption seems more Moscow than Melbourne. Yet as a fable of power, vengeance and betrayal it exerts a quiet, increasingly wicked pull, equivalent to that of the wrinkly but ruthless grandma. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Frightening stuff, and made all the more so because of how matter-of-factly by writer-director David Michôd plays it. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
It's rooting against grandma that drives this violent, hardhearted film, and waiting for the pride of lions she's created to devour her that gives Animal Kingdom its animal energy. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Early on, writer-director David Michôd serves up "Trainspotting"-like tricks and narration that is beguiling, if rarely apropos. But the actors are something. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Michôd wants a Greek epic but doesn't have the material. Animal Kingdom is a work of obvious ambition, and seeing a debut filmmaker swing for the fences like this is its own kind of moviehead satisfaction. Read full review
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