(MA15+) ****

Director: David Michôd.

Cast: Ben Mendelson, Guy Pearce, Joel Edgerton, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, James Frecheville.

FORGET Underbelly - here's an Aussie crime drama that doesn't glorify its villains and feels decidedly more realistic.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Animal Kingdom is a subtly performed and excellently written story of one family's downward spiral - a descent triggered by some gun-happy cops and the family's own criminal foibles.

Set in Melbourne, it centres on J (Frecheville), a simple-seeming teen who comes under the custody of his gran Smurf (Weaver) and her bank-robbing sons when J's mother dies of a heroin overdose.

An innocent thrown into a ferocious world, he's soon up to his neck in a revenge plot after the Armed Robbery Squad blows away one of his uncles.

J's journey is marvellously scripted and Frecheville's performance is under-stated perfection, all the more remarkable for the fact he almost steals the show from an awesome cast.

Mendelson and Weaver are nothing short of brilliant as the bad egg Pope and the matriach Smurf respectively, while Edgerton, Ford and Sullivan Stapleton are all great as the other three uncles.

Michôd's direction is lo-fi and non-flashy, giving a voyeuristic take on the family falling apart, but his script is the real winner - its measured pace is dotted with simple, quick set-pieces and its characters and dialogue are realistic.

It's gritty content won't appeal to all, and those enamoured with Underbelly's glitz-and-glam approach to the crime world might be disappointed, but the authentic low-key vibe, marvellous characters, and killer cast make this the best Aussie film of the year.