Animal Kingdom

This is a movie about gangsters who, on top of being terrible people, are tremendously boring. You’ll hate virtually every character, which, I guess, is the point. Animal Kingdom succeeds at not glamorizing crime, though in the process, it has some dull stretches, and features a completely uninteresting protagonist. James Frecheville stars as Josh, a 17-year-old who, at the start of the film, is watching a television game show while his mom dies next to him. He then goes on to watch TV at his grandmother’s house while his three uncles kill people and steal stuff—but mostly, they sit around watching TV or playing video games or eating food. Things become more interesting in the second half, when Grandma, who’s been the only character with human emotions, shows where her sympathy lies; violence, swearing and Australian cuisine figure prominently, and make up for the slow first half. This film is not great, but it’s more morally responsible than movies that glamorize crime, like Scarface, The Godfather or Pretending to Be a Devout Christian So You Can Go to Congress and Give Tax Refunds to the Very Wealthy.