StudioCanal
The Animal Kingdom is what an X-Men movie would look like if it doubled-down on its tolerance-for-outsiders metaphor and did away with any exciting superpowered spectacle. Debuting stateside on Feb. 29 as the opening night selection of Lincoln Center’s annual “Rendez-Vous with French Cinema” series (after which it will premiere in theaters on Mar. 15), director Thomas Cailley’s film covers age-old genre terrain with clichéd, serious-minded obviousness. Minus adamantium claws and energy eyebeams, it’s a mutant saga of the mushiest kind.
Despite its strong showing at the César Awards (i.e. the French Oscars), where it took home five of the 12 trophies for which it was nominated, The Animal Kingdom tackles pulp material with turgid poignancy.
In contemporary France, chef François (Romain Duris) is on his way to visit his wife Lana at the hospital with his teenage son Émile (Paul Kircher), but their journey is halted by intense traffic and a skirmish inside an ambulance, out of which bursts a young man with a bandaged face and two feathered wings for arms. “Strange days,” shrugs a motorist after watching this birdboy escape captivity, and François agrees. He and Émile know full well that the world is now topsy-turvy given that Lana is also one of these creatures, slowly transforming into a furry beast with little apparent comprehension of her former self.