Animal Kingdom
This post is a bit late; I saw this a week ago. But the fact that I'm still thinking about it now probably means it's worth writing about. (I think.)
"Animal Kingdom" is about a family of mobsters who live in suburban Melbourne. It's told from the point of view of J, a seventeen year-old whose mom has just died of a heroin overdose. Because of this, he's forced to go live with his grandmother and uncles, whom are various degrees of insane. The plot spools out from there, detailing the family's self-destruction in a brooding, strangely realistic way. The movie works hard to avoid romanticizing the lives of the people it follows-however, it does so without becoming heavy-handed and too painful to watch ("Requiem for a Dream", anyone?) Although there's relatively little action for a crime movie (I think there are maybe four times when you see blood), there's still a tension that's maintained throughout. There's no arrogance to the way the movie's done- it's just the desire to tell a story. Even the moralizing aspects of it, which are sort of inevitable, flow naturally out of the way the characters and plot run together.
I ended up seeing this with my grandmother in downtown Manhattan, which was quite interesting. She found the grandmother (who's played by Jacki Weaver) to be exceptionally frightening, understandably. But on the subway back to her apartment, I remember feeling still trapped in the movie-world. (This tends to happen with particularly absorbing books, too- the feeling that the world of the story's kind of been poured over you.) It was a bit surreal, and quite possibly aided by the fact that I was dead tired, but I think it was largely because of how effective the movie was. And it was effective without gratuitous violence and ridiculous situations (which are both appreciated, but when a crime movie works without that it's kind of a treat).
There are better reviews/posts on this movie in various other places on the Intrabuttz, and if you live near New York or LA, get ye to see this!