It even ended up scoring an Oscar nomination.
Our TV movie pick for tonight (Wednesday, 28 February) is Animal Kingdom, the Oscar-nominated 2010 gangster movie about an Australian crime family.
The film centres around 17-year-old Joshua ‘J’ Cody (James Frecheville) who, after his mother dies of an overdose, reaches out to his estranged grandmother Smurf (Jacki Weaver, Oscar nominated for her performance) for help.
Smurf invites the teenager to move into her home, which happens to be the base of a Melbourne crime family of which she is the matriarch.
This branch of the Cody family indoctrinate J into their criminal way of life, but the teen winds up caught in the middle between a war between the family and the police (fronted by Guy Pearce).
Written and directed by David Michôd (The King, The Rover) and also featuring amongst its cast a terrifying Ben Mendelsohn as Smurf’s psychopathic oldest son Pope and Joel Edgerton as Pope’s partner-in-crime, Animal Kingdom is a powerful, surprising and twisty blend of crime thriller and dysfunctional family drama.
Holding a whopping 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie even inspired a US series of the same name that starred Ellen Barkin and ran for six seasons.
The original can be watched (or recorded to watch at a later time) on Film4 at 1.40am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.
It can also be rented on Apple TV, Google Play and the Sky Store. You can check out the trailer for Animal Kingdom right here:
Here are some of the other movies airing on TV tonight:
The Blair Witch Project – Sky Sci-Fi – 9pm
The legendary supernatural horror that kickstarted the found footage genre.
The Father – Film4 – 9pm
The 2020 drama which earned Anthony Hopkins his second Oscar.
Cobra – ITV4 – 9.50pm
In this cult action flick, Sylvester Stallone is a tough as nails LA cop who must protect the only surviving witness (Brigitte Nielsen) to a strange murderous cult with far-reaching plans.
Only You – BBC Three – 10.25pm
Focusing on two people (Josh O’Connor and Laia Costa) who have a chance meeting on New Years Eve before entering into a whirlwind relationship, this romantic drama has a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Legends of the Fall – Film4 – 11pm
Anthony Hopkins stars again, this time alongside Brad Pitt and Aidan Quinn, in this epic Western drama about a family living in the wilderness and plains of Montana in the early 20th century.
Jackals – Legend Xtra – 11.05pm
In this 2017 horror thriller, a family hires a cult deprogrammer (Stephen Dorff) to take back their teenage son from a murderous cult but wind up finding themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.
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