Often hidden in the thick of big budget summer blockbusters are small art house films that turn out to be highlights of the year. The first of those for me this year is American Animals. Writer/Director Bart Layton has taken a little known true story, thrown some fantastic young actors and created a unique and effective heist thriller that is easily one of the top films of the year.
In this film we see a group of college students that are bored with their everyday lives. When one named Spencer brings his wild friend Warren to his school's library, the brilliant plan to steal millions of dollars worth of rare books from the library's private collection. They bring on two other guys and attempt to see beyond the line of heists, the line between planning a fun heist with your friends and actually pulling one off.
Acting-wise this is flawless. Barry Keoghan plays Spencer, an aspiring artist and does great. His performance may not have the intrigue that he had in The Killing of a Sacred Deer but his work carrys the film really well. Evan Peters gives probably my favourite performance by a male actor this year as Warren(I'd say just actor in general but Olivia Cooke has that title right now). He is absolutely flawless, beautifully embodying his real life counterpart. His performance felt very Sam Rockwell-esque and carried a ton of emotional weight. He is unhinged and ambitious and I loved his character. Blake Jenner and Jared Abrahamson play the other two guys and are also exceptional. I'd discuss acting more but those four are the only real stand outs, and the performances are far from the only excellent element of the film.
Bart Layton did something really special here. The film starts out with a title card saying "this is not based on a true story" but fades out a few words so it changes to "this is a true story." He then tells his story through traditional narrative devices, complemented by interviews with the real life guys. They tell the story here and it made the film feel really special, feeling kind of like a documentary, similarly to how the viewer is shown the past events in Waltz with Bashir. Their storytelling moves the story forward really well and allows for some fresh and unique editing choices. The editing was a surprise standout here. Also great for the most part was the cinematography. Lots of unique shots and some strong long shots that really impressed me. There were some more action-heavy scenes that got a bit shaky that I would have liked to see cleaned up but those were few and far between. I think my favourite element of this film though is its structure. The way I see it this film is divided into three segments. The first part of the film is a ton of fun, it gives you the fun of a heist movie through the guys planning their elaborate heist. It appeals to the inner criminal in all of us, thinking of how we'd pull of the perfect heist although we know we'd never do it. Then comes the second part, the actual heist, which shows us why we'd never do it. This shows us the anxiety that comes with it and brings surprisingly some of the greatest tension I've seen in a film in a long time. I found this more tense than most horror movies I've seen lately, and that really pays credit to Layton as you feel every emotion he wants you to in these scenes. The third part is the guilt and fear of being caught that follows the heist, which at times legitimately made me feel uneasy. The actors brought the fear to life amazingly during the heist, especially with Peters and Jenner going nuts in fear, but what they all brought emotionally afterwards is on another level. Any film that can make me feel the sickening guilt of its characters is clearly doing something right. The only issue I had in the end was one musical choice that didn't work great for me.
My only complaints about this film are slight nitpicks, and while they're enough to keep it from my top spot on the year for now, this is absolutely incredible, and on a rewatch or two I could see it becoming a favourite of the decade for me. This is everything I love about art house cinema and more and I couldn't suggest it more.
Rating: 4.6/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
In this film we see a group of college students that are bored with their everyday lives. When one named Spencer brings his wild friend Warren to his school's library, the brilliant plan to steal millions of dollars worth of rare books from the library's private collection. They bring on two other guys and attempt to see beyond the line of heists, the line between planning a fun heist with your friends and actually pulling one off.
Acting-wise this is flawless. Barry Keoghan plays Spencer, an aspiring artist and does great. His performance may not have the intrigue that he had in The Killing of a Sacred Deer but his work carrys the film really well. Evan Peters gives probably my favourite performance by a male actor this year as Warren(I'd say just actor in general but Olivia Cooke has that title right now). He is absolutely flawless, beautifully embodying his real life counterpart. His performance felt very Sam Rockwell-esque and carried a ton of emotional weight. He is unhinged and ambitious and I loved his character. Blake Jenner and Jared Abrahamson play the other two guys and are also exceptional. I'd discuss acting more but those four are the only real stand outs, and the performances are far from the only excellent element of the film.
Bart Layton did something really special here. The film starts out with a title card saying "this is not based on a true story" but fades out a few words so it changes to "this is a true story." He then tells his story through traditional narrative devices, complemented by interviews with the real life guys. They tell the story here and it made the film feel really special, feeling kind of like a documentary, similarly to how the viewer is shown the past events in Waltz with Bashir. Their storytelling moves the story forward really well and allows for some fresh and unique editing choices. The editing was a surprise standout here. Also great for the most part was the cinematography. Lots of unique shots and some strong long shots that really impressed me. There were some more action-heavy scenes that got a bit shaky that I would have liked to see cleaned up but those were few and far between. I think my favourite element of this film though is its structure. The way I see it this film is divided into three segments. The first part of the film is a ton of fun, it gives you the fun of a heist movie through the guys planning their elaborate heist. It appeals to the inner criminal in all of us, thinking of how we'd pull of the perfect heist although we know we'd never do it. Then comes the second part, the actual heist, which shows us why we'd never do it. This shows us the anxiety that comes with it and brings surprisingly some of the greatest tension I've seen in a film in a long time. I found this more tense than most horror movies I've seen lately, and that really pays credit to Layton as you feel every emotion he wants you to in these scenes. The third part is the guilt and fear of being caught that follows the heist, which at times legitimately made me feel uneasy. The actors brought the fear to life amazingly during the heist, especially with Peters and Jenner going nuts in fear, but what they all brought emotionally afterwards is on another level. Any film that can make me feel the sickening guilt of its characters is clearly doing something right. The only issue I had in the end was one musical choice that didn't work great for me.
My only complaints about this film are slight nitpicks, and while they're enough to keep it from my top spot on the year for now, this is absolutely incredible, and on a rewatch or two I could see it becoming a favourite of the decade for me. This is everything I love about art house cinema and more and I couldn't suggest it more.
Rating: 4.6/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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