American Animals

2018 true heist story

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Four college-aged kids plan and attempt to pull off the robbery of rare books in a special room at a college library.

Before I reveal whether or not I often sat around thinking about whether or not I could pull off crimes, I'd like to know whether or not other people did that. I'm talking about actual crimes here, not just crimes against the written word--like using dashes far too liberally or writing the words "whether or not" three times in the opening sentence of a movie review. Do all people in early adulthood, that time when people might feel at the height of their physical powers and still be immature enough to thing they're invincible, ponder this sort of thing, or was there something wrong with me? Maybe Dostoevsky had an influence on me.

Whatever was wrong with me is the exact thing wrong with the characters in American Animals, the new heist story that, if you believe the opening promise, is not based on a true story but IS a true story. None of the four involved seem all that desperate like the types of criminals you might be used to seeing in movies like this. They don't seem to be after anything. They don't have crime in their DNA. They all seemingly have things going for them--one's a gifted artist, one is a star athlete, one is studying to be an engineer, the other guy has a rockin' bod. But with nothing more than some unhinged creativity, a stack of heist movies, and that kind of dumbass spunk that a guy in his early 20's has, they plan and attempt to execute this plan. With the Oceans movie, including the one that is out right now, people have fun watching how the band of criminals are able to pull off a spectacular scheme in surprising ways. Here, it's. . .well, it's not quite like an Oceans movie. That's all I want to say.

I probably have already given too much away. The fun in this is the unexpected, and that comes not only from the characters and the decisions they make but in the playful style of writer/director Bart Layton in his first non-documentary feature. Actually, it is a documentary/narrative hybrid. The narrative is interrupted as we're introduced to the real people--the four guys, some of their parents, a professor or two, librarians--who tell the story from their sometimes varying points of view. It doesn't have the cheapness of a true crimes documentary that will juxtapose reenactments with interview segments. And it really is a lot more playful. Contrasting memories of insignificant details, such as the color of a guy's scarf, become little visual jokes that help keep this thing airy. Layton takes the audience through all the expected chunks that a heist story is supposed to have, but very little of it is anything you'd call traditional. The outlandish story, told with some visual flair and that intertwining of movie narrative and documentary interviews, has the vibrancy and humor of an angst-ier Coen brothers movie. Layton has loads of tricks up his sleeve, yet it's never too tricky.

I don't really know any of the actors in this other than Ann Dowd, who I didn't recognize; Udo Kier, who I didn't recognize; and Barry Keoghan, the kid who was in The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Though I could definitely see Keoghan's character becoming the real-life version shown in the interview segments, it doesn't seem like this guy has much range. He sort of speaks with the same odd cadence used in Sacred Deer, and I think he was sometimes creepy when he wasn't really supposed to be creepy at all. More effective is Evan Peters, an actor who is apparently an X-Man, as Keoghan's wilder friend, Warren. I fell in love with this character right at the start when he shows off the tattoo he has on his upper arm.

Great Hungry-Man product placement.