Animal Kingdom

So I watched Australia's 2010 winner for best picture "Animal Kingdom". So was it good, I say throw another shrimp on the barbie and enjoy this great flick. Now is this film perfect, no it could be a bit slow at times for a crime saga, and seems to have gaps in the plot where the audience is supposed to catch on to what happened at some point in the past (which is fine I could keep up). That being said this movie is highly original, well acted, well written, and well directed. I can see why it got so much acclaim in it's native Australia. I particularly liked how it started off with the potential of developing into a crime drama where the main character, a 16 year old named J, is brought in to learn the family trade and nothing else, but skewed off that plot point quickly. I expected to see robberies because this is what the family does. However, what we get instead is the aftermath of one of their scores we don't even really learn about it other than to see some money being counted out early on in this film. Instead J is thrust into this world after his mom dies and we go through a range of emotions and action as the family takes on the police hell bent on taking them down one way or another. So with that being said, this movie on my own IMDB would normally be a 7, but when the ending comes it comes at you hard and fast, and I did see it coming, but only moments before it happened. So if you take everything into consideration this goes down as one of the most original crime thrillers of all time. "Animal Kingdom" is not necessarily the best, but definitely one of the most original and no matter what a must see for both intellectuals and crime film fans.