(August 21, 2010.)

Strong new addition to my year's best list: the Australian David Michôd's ANIMAL KINGDOM. This directorial debut is the story of a brutal coming of age amid a criminal family's meltdown. It also turned out to be much more subtle, contemporary, and suspenseful than the trailer suggested. Tense from the first few minutes and extremely well acted. A review will follow shortly but you can see in general the response is good -- Metacritic 83.