American Animals **** (2018, Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd) – Movie Review

Very interesting and provocative movie, boldly written and directed by Bart Layton (it’s quite a feature debut) with tremendous performances from Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan and Ann Dowd, plus exciting cinematography and a great score and soundtrack.

American Animals (2018) is a very, very, very interesting and provocative real-life heist-gone-wrong movie, boldly written and commandingly directed by Bart Layton.

It is quite a brilliant feature debut, propelled with tremendous performances from Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson as the thieves, and Ann Dowd as the victim. It looks and sounds great too, so it comes complete with exciting cinematography (by Ole Bratt Birkeland) and a great score (by Anne Nikitin) and soundtrack.

American Animals is exciting as a thriller, but it is also a film with something on its mind. The theme is that ‘nobody wants to be ordinary’, but sometimes this is more trouble than it is worth. Actually it can land you in so much trouble, or even in jail. Heists are fun in the movies, but the moral of this one is, don’t even think of trying it.

Two bright, affluent Transylvania University college students in Lexington, Kentucky, plot to steal some priceless rare books from their university’s Special Collections Library just because they think they can, and eventually, reluctantly, have to persuade two others to join them. They two plot hatchers are spiritual cousins of the two guys in Hitchcock’s Rope, which was also based on a true case, though that time we were talking murder. And this is just theft, and of old books, for goodness sake.

Layton manages to keep his film darkly funny and well as ultra-tense. It plays like a realistic version of Ocean’s Eleven, where crime has consequences, serious consequences.

Based on a true story, the film intercuts interviews with the real four who attempted the bizarre heist apparently in a misguided quest for personal glory. They may be bright enough, but they come over as real dumb, both in the interviews and in what they get up to in the main part of the movie. Fascinating though these interviews are, would the film be better without them? Are they an alienating add-on, or are they an essential extra, pumping up the volume?

Barry Keoghan as Spencer, Evan Peters as Warren, Blake Jenner as Chas, Jared Abrahamson as Eric.

Barry Keoghan as Spencer, Evan Peters as Warren, Blake Jenner as Chas, Jared Abrahamson as Eric have the film pretty much to themselves, with Peters and Keoghan outstanding, getting the bright/dumb mix of their characters perfectly, staying this side of sympathetic. But Ann Dowd is essential as the museum curator Betty Jean ‘BJ’ Gooch. It is the kind of turn that needs to be remembered at awards time – an ideal candidate for Best Supporting Actress.

Most of the movie was filmed in Charlotte, North Carolina, but all of the library scenes were shot in the Davidson College Library in Spring Break week 2017, while the library still functioned.

It is September, and American Animals is one of the best, most memorable movies of 2018 so far.

There is strong language, threat, and drug misuse.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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