American Animals Review

R: For language throughout, some drug use and brief crude/sexual materialThe Orchard, MoviePass Ventures, Film4 Productions, RAW, LAVABEAR1 Hr and 56 MinutesWriter/Dir: Bart LaytonCast: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Udo Kier, Ann DowdINTRO: Wait, MoviePass made a movie? They bought a movie and is an an actual distribution company? Well how about this? Their first distributed production is so far the best movie I've seen this year.Yeah. I'm shocked as well.
Childhood friends Spencer Reinhard and Warren Lipka rebel against their suburban upbringing. They and two fellow students, Chas Allen and Eric Borsuk plot to steal priceless Audubon prints and rare books from Transylvania University’s special collections library.THE GOODHave you ever seen any of those ID channel mystery shows (don’t ask which specific show, they’re all interchangeable)? Think of “American Animals” as a theatrical version of an episode of one of those shows. The primary difference is that “American Animals” is extremely creative in it’s narrative format. That doesn’t only go for true crime films, but the biopic genre in general. The way this story is presented is mind-blowing in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in cinema.
In those mystery shows, you have the real life witnesses, victims, or sometimes the criminals talking to the camera in confessionals about the crime while performers act out the crimes in dramatizations. But this film does it in the most innovative way that no other film of this type has ever constructed. This is a biographical crime drama where the real life guys who did these crimes the story is based on play a part of the story. No, not in the same way that Clint Eastwood did with “15:17 to Paris” (which I will get to later in the review). Whenever director Bart Layton would cut back to the real life Warren and Spencer, they would describe events leading up to this heist but, as they struggle remembering certain details, Layton cleverly shows their POV in the dramatization. There is a moment where Warren is in a car next to Evan Peters who portrays Warren and interacts with him as a means to go along with the recollection of events.As details in their memories change as the real guys explain what was going on, you quickly see the change of detailing on the spot during the dramatization. If someone tries to recall the color of the scarf they saw on a guy as either blue or purple, you see the scarf change colors in that moment. Granted, you know it's just a matter of color correction in editing, but small technical tricks like that to maintain honesty and faithfulness to the subjects makes the entertainment valuable. Even the ways they transition from telling the story from Spencer and Warren’s POV are creative.The most recent film that stylistically did something new with excellence (for me) was Doug Liman’s “American Made” starring Tom Cruise. I would say “I, Tonya” but that has nearly the same format as both “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “American Made”. The approach Layton takes to this story is up his alley. This is Layton’s directorial debut, but he is no stranger to documentarian projects, for the majority of his works are television docu-series. Here, he blends his regular style with a compelling narrative.
I’m praising the style of the film and Layton’s creativity, but what about the actors that portray these criminals? First off, the casting in this is fucking perfect. All of the actors look just like the men they portray that when they cut to the real life guys in the present, you immediately gasp at how similarly they look, especially Evan Peters.Out of all the cast members, Evan Peters is the one who upstages everyone. This may as well be his breakthrough role where he displays a range of expressions and emotions in one movie. Yeah, he steals the show in the recent “X-Men” movies because of his role as Quicksilver and the amazing scenes written and constructed for that character. But as an actor, this is the film that should really put Peters on the map. The way he portrays Lipka is so great that whenever you cut back to the real Warren giving various expressions you might just believe that Peters will grow up to look like Warren Lipka. Then, there is a scene where Peters is talking very mellow and intimidating that a weird thought hit me: This boy might grow up to be the next Matthew McConaughey. From his mannerisms through movement, and most of the time the way he asserts himself in his dialogue, made me so reminiscent of  McConaughey. As of now, I’m going to refer to Evan Peters as mini McConaughey.
That said, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, and Jared Abrahamson are all fantastic. Though each performer has had a movie displaying their acting abilities, such as Keoghan with “Killing of a Sacred Deer” and Jenner with “Everybody Wants Some”,  it’s a good time for Peters to get into the limelight and he delivers an electrifying performance. While Peters is consistently stealing the show, Jenner has one scene where he is acting his ass off but also steals that torch Peters was carrying for so long. Honestly, it made me go, “Damn. I’m glad Blake Jenner won ‘The Glee Project’ ‘cause his acting is phenomenal.” Also, directors, keep casting him in stuff. He starred in two of my favorite films of 2016 and I would love to see him in many more things.THE BAD“American Animals” is a crime thriller but at the same time plays with being a dark comedy. It is sporadically consistent with it, but most of the time the tone is imbalanced given how dark the story gets. When the third act rolls around, where the four young men are following through with their heist, the tone takes a drastic shift where the movie has you feeling terrible for the victim assaulted during this heist, followed by an awkwardly comedic beat. Even during the heist sequence your suspension of disbelief goes out the window a bit because of how loud everyone gets, especially when it’s taking place in a library where, unlike space, EVERYONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM.THE RENDYTo call out a director whose film I’ve never had the chance to review earlier this year but saw in a theater: You see this, Clint Eastwood?! This is how you incorporate your real life subjects into your biographical film. Don’t put non-actors in a movie  to show nothing but non-actors being unable to act. If you want to make them part of your story, THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT!
“American Animals” completely raises the bar in storytelling in its genre. It was already raised in “Wolf of Wall Street” where other biopics that followed tried to copy it’s style. Director Bart Layton shines in his directorial debut where he scraps familiar themes in his narrative to present a story in a new light by managing to present his own visual style while paying respect to everyone involved in this robbery. Because of the subjects playing a part telling the story, you get a clear sense of their characters, their personalities, and most of all, their guilt. I’ve seen true crime films where I sympathized with the leads and their actions, but not with the same gut-punching impact that this left me. The sympathy doesn’t feel manipulative; instead, it feels earned and honest.  Whereas in Eastwood’s “15:17 to Paris” the real life guys involved in this incident are presented as, not only one dimensional characters, but also one dimensional people because of leads portraying themselves. Here, the men feel human and that comes from the footage of them telling the story and the powerful cast portraying them.LAST STATEMENTImmensely crafted with detailed passion, commitment, and respect to the people associated to this unfortunate crime, “American Animals” is a powerful film that isn’t only depth-defying and raises the bar for the biographical genre, but in innovative storytelling as well.Rating : 5/5 | 97%Super Scene: Chas freaks out.