I remain cautiously optimistic about Animal Kingdom, the blessed child of Cannes that’s gotten intensely high praise. It’s the story of a young man caught between a crime family and the long helpful arm of the law that’s intending to get him out before he’s pulled back in. Unfortunately for it, its premise, praise and promise of violent drama make it sound far too much like The Square which turned out to be more boring than riveting. Joel Edgerton’s involvement here doesn’t help the cause either.

And, sadly, neither does the trailer.

See for yourself:

The pounding music in the background is a nice touch, and a lot of the scenes look like they are boiling over with dramatics, but some of the stuff doesn’t feel good at all. Pull my finger? What’s that girl’s address? The rest of it is fantastic stuff, but the trailer is crippled by those idiotic additions.

It’s really the fault of the editor that cut the trailer, but that stuff sounds hilarious surrounded by blaring, intense music.

Pull my finger…DUNDUNDUN.

That being said, Jacki Weaver looks sufficiently creepy. At least I wouldn’t want her calling me sweetie after telling me I’d done some bad things.

Over all, David Michod’s debut looks like a good movie, maybe a great movie, but I’m remaining cautiously optimistic. We’ll get a chance to see on August 13th.

What did you think?