AMERICAN ANIMALS : Tuesday 9th October 2018.

I saw 'AMERICAN ANIMALS' earlier this week. This true crime art heist drama is Written and Directed by British documentarian and now two time feature film maker Bart Layton in only his second feature making outing after 2012's 'The Imposter'. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, was released in the US back in early June, and in the UK in early September. It has so far taken just over US$3M and has received generally positive Press.




This real life telling jumps often during the film between talking heads interviews with the real four friends portrayed in the film and the perpetrators of said crime, and the events as they unfolded as portrayed by the Actors. The film opens up with a young man applying make up to his face and his eyes to make him look years older, and when done he dresses accordingly, sits on the edge of his bed, and waits. We then cut back eighteen months.

And so eighteen months earlier takes us back to mid-way through 2003, in Lexington, Kentucky. Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan) is an art student who feels that his life has no meaning and he yearns for some excitement, something dramatic in his life to spur him on to greatness, just as many other tragic painters throughout history have had to live through their own personal challenges that have ultimately defined their work. Reinhard's good friend and fellow student is Warren Lipka (Evan Peters) who has a restless rebellious streak, and is at college on an athletics scholarship although is treading on thin ice because he rarely attends athletics training or practice, doesn't really care for the sport and is only there to please his family.

One day Reinhard is given a tour of the library at Transylvania University and in particular the special collections room that houses several rare and very valuable books of significant historical value. After the viewing, Reinhard hatches a notion to steal the books and sell them on to a private collector, estimated to be worth US$12M at least. The main book of note is by naturalist and painter John James Audubon and is titled 'The Birds of America' published in a number of sections between 1827 and 1838 and consisting of 435 hand coloured life sized prints.

After agreeing to rob the University of its prized collection of art history books, Lipka travels to Amsterdam to meet with two black market buyers he had been put in contact with via some mystery connection in New York. Lipka returns with the great news that they have a buyer for the books they have yet to steal, and the value runs into millions of dollars. Needless to say they are both very excited and wildly encouraged.

The pair soon come to the realisation that it is going to take more that just the two of them to pull of this heist. And so they approach Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) who is another student wanting to join the FBI, and so knows a thing or two about criminology. Once on board with their plan, he guides them through the logistics and practicalities of the heist, including the fact that it should be undertaken during broad daylight when security is more relaxed rather than at night time as was the original plan, when it will be heightened.

Next up they recruit Chas Allen (Blake Jenner) to be the getaway driver. He comes from a monied family, is physically fit and is entrepreneurial. Over the months that follow they stakeout the library to check on the comings and goings of the staff, they check entry and exit points, map out the lay of the land inside the library, plot their arrival and departure, and time the whole operation with almost military like precision. They also learn that the only person tasked with guarding the books is the Special Collections Librarian, Betty Jean Gooch (Ann Dowd).

By now we have arrived at December 2004. On the day of the robbery, in December, just a week or so before Christmas, each of the four disguise themselves as four elderly businessmen. It is a bright sunny day, and the four men enter the library, and split up. All are as nervous as each other about the task that lays ahead. After observing that Gooch has three other staff members in the Special Collections Library, the decision is made to abort the mission on the grounds that it is all too risky. Visibly shaken by the aborted mission, Reinhard wants to pull out saying that he is not cut out for such things, and that he needs to consider his family more. Lipka is mortified by this news having come so far, and having already put into motion what was Reinhard's plan in the first place.

Lipka after these first turn of events, has called the Library and asked for a private viewing the next day which is granted. Reinhard has a bit of an epiphany and comes back into the fold but only if he can act as look out from a distance. This time the robbery is back on again, with a change in roles, and they have decided to drop the aged disguises, and instead go in as well to do clean shaven successful young business men. Lipka and Borsuk enter the Library. Lipka tasers Betty Jean Gooch but she struggles and resists resulting in them both having to reluctantly bind and gag her. After fumbling around searching for keys, they gain access to the glass cabinet housing 'The Birds of America' and smash though various others to gain access to other noted historical works including 'On the Origin of Species'. 

By now this heist has descended into a farce as they mess up their exit from the building and blunder back through the library under the full gaze of dutiful studying students. In their blind panic, they drop the two huge and heavy volumes of Audubon's works and have to leave it behind. They do however, manage to escape with two other smaller books that are nevertheless rare and therefore in all likelihood valuable to the right buyer.

Dressed up as smart young business types again, Reinhard and Lipka take the books to Christie's Auction House in New York to have the two books authenticated and valued. This was a prerequisite of the Dutch buyers who have committed to taking the stolen merchandise off their hands, according to Lipka upon his return from that initial visit now some months ago. Having been told that they'll have to return tomorrow for a valuation and authentication they meet up with Borsuk and Allen waiting in the van parked on the street outside. Allen looses his cool and chastises everyone for their blatant stupidity. and they return to Lexington with the books. Shortly after, Reinhard comes to realise that the Police will be able to track them down from the e-mail trail used in setting up the heist and through his mobile phone number.

The gang of four begin to show signs of stress as they attempt to lie low, and the guilt sets in about the magnitude of their crime, and the harm they caused to Betty Jean Gooch. Lipka attempts to shoplift from a convenience store; Reinhard is involved in a rear end collision with another vehicle; and Borsuk starts a bar brawl. Almost inevitably, their homes are raided by the FBI and they are arrested. They each are sentenced and each serves over seven years for their crimes in federal prison.

Post serving jail time, the real-life rare book thieves talk of their regret for attempting the heist, stating how much pain they have put their families through. A pre-credits epilogue tells us of their lives after prison. Borsuk now lives in Los Angeles and works as a Writer; Allen has become a fitness coach in Southern California; Lipka is studying filmmaking at College in Philadelphia and Reinhard has remained in Lexington and is making a living as a jobbing artist, specialising in . . . . birds. Betty Jean Gooch, the Librarian, has remained at Transylvania University where she still works as the Special Collections Librarian. 

This is not your usual heist film where things invariably go well and the perpetrators get away in a hail of bullets, with screeching tyres and inept cops giving chase only to meet up at some secret location to celebrate their success and share their ill gotten gains. No, 'American Animals' is a wildly different kind of heist movie where the best laid plans go horribly wrong with emotional, tragic and traumatic consequences for both those directly and indirectly involved. This film is a perfect mix of narrative real life drama and insightful documentary that is never melodramatic but tells it like it is, despite some of the contradictions coming from the talking heads interviews concerning who said what, who did this, and who did that etc. Backed up by a thumping soundtrack, 'American Animals' is certainly worth the price of entry, but you'll have to determine for yourself if this glamourises true crime, or if its a story that had to be told and the criminals have paid their price, did repent of their sins, and are now fully integrated back into society, never to darken the doors of criminal activity again.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-