The bonds of family tend to have a permanent effect on our existence. The gifts our parents, siblings, grandparents and other blood relatives impart can have positive, negative or most likely, somewhere in-between impacts on our character traits. In any general case, family outweighs all other outside factors to influence each of our individualistic human, and fragile, templates.
Two films featuring the talents of primarily Australian casts, Animal Kingdom and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole couldn’t be more superficially divergent at first glance, but both present cases of when and how we should view the familial qualities bestowed upon us as appropriate moral compasses.
Animal Kingdom follows Melbourne teenager Josh, who moves in with his grandmother and three uncles after his mother commits suicide. His relatives quickly involve him in the family business of crime and when things begin to unravel, he seeks help from the authorities; another questionable support system.
Written/directed by David Michod, Animal Kingdom proves to be another excellent film in the newly burgeoning Australian crime drama genre, after last year’s inventive take on film noir, The Square. In this case, Michod subtly evolves a family dynamic in which the chain of command is defined via heartless brutality. Neither of Josh’s two families, his kin or the law, truly have his best interests at heart and sacrifice his safety in equal measure. It is only when Josh comes to that conclusion that he has the opportunity to deviate from his past and determine his future.
Legend of the Guardians, a beautiful, animated evocation of the inner lives of owls, takes flight after young siblings, Soren and Kludd, are kidnapped by rogue owls who intend on ruling the winged kingdom. Soren chooses to escape and seek out the owl protectors, the Guardians, while Kludd decides that he belongs with the ill-intended birds.
Director Zach Snyder treads upon virgin territory for himself after such R-Rated ventures as 300 and Watchmen, but ably creates a fully realized owl world. The theme of fighting for what is right is bolstered by Soren’s upbringing in addition to his newfound extended family: concepts which are to be expected in a children’s film. It is Kludd’s choice that is the more intriguing and complex approach as he came from a family that believed in his abilities, but because of his own self-confidence issues, shunned them for a new support system based upon purity and arrogance.
Animal Kingdom and Legend of the Guardians each explore potentially deadly coming-of-age stories with similarly animalistic, hierarchical backgrounds. The families each of the protagonists choose to belong to ultimately predetermine what kind of man the boys will eventually become.
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Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focused on marketing, publicity and distribution.
Ari Silber can be reached at
