A kingdom of wounded and dying animals – that is, animals of the most vicious, dangerous kind – is what director David Michôd portrays here, and this is maybe the nearest we're going to get to an Australian GoodFellas. It is a tense, violent and supremely watchable crime drama, set in the bluecollar-gangland of Melbourne and starring Guy Pearce and Ben Mendelsohn, reviving memories of Eric Bana in Chopper and Scott Roberts's Australian heist thriller The Hard Word.
Michôd begins his movie with the queasiest touch of gallows humour: we seem to be watching bored teen Joshua Cody, known as J, played by James Frecheville, emotionlessly watching TV on the couch next to his sleeping mom. Yet the succeeding scene shows that this is not exactly what is happening, and J is sent to live with his cousins, the notorious Cody crime family, whose suburban home is under permanent surveillance by the cops. It is a household of lairy aggressive males, the Cody brothers, presided over by their ferocious mother Janine Cody, played by Jacki Weaver, who has a cloyingly sentimental regard for family above all things, and adores embarrassing her boys by kissing them in public, lingeringly, on the mouth. Yet she demonstrates a chilling ruthlessness.
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