The Big Picture

• American Animals is a powerful and gripping docudrama that combines interviews with the real-life criminals of a botched heist with dramatized accounts, creating a unique viewing experience.
• The film explores the mindset of the young college students involved in the heist, highlighting the brash personality of Warren Lipka and his desire to shake up his life by stealing priceless books.
• With its innovative storytelling techniques, intense sequences, and exceptional acting, American Animals is an underrated heist flick that delivers a suspenseful and unforgettable cinematic experience.

A powerfully realized true story or docudrama can be exhilarating at the best of times and few come as gut-wrenching as 2018's absurdly gripping American Animals. Somehow, the flick is still underrated to this day, yet remains as strong as they come when testifying to the power of the aforementioned filmmaking mode. Touching the Void, for example, from the early 2000s, is a true-to-life survival tale about two daring climbers whose Everest expedition hit a snag when one of them fell into a gaping crevasse during the descent. It was much more documentary than re-enacted drama (though the actors shone) – but the impact was heavy. American Animals is, for the most part, a recreation of the events that occurred in 2004 when a quartet of bored college students decided to rob an art exhibit containing priceless books at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

American Animals is a movie that contains cutaways to interviews with the real-life (now free) criminals depicted in the film, who, in their own witty ways, reaffirm truths about the events unfolding on-screen. If that sounds wild, innovative, and entertaining, that's because it is. Bart Layton's movie is a heck of a ride, utilizing rewind, freeze-frame, voiceover, and blisteringly believable acting to tell a story so preposterous one can't help but feel some liberties were taken to heighten the heist movie's drama. But, no, it's all pretty much as it was. Kicking off with a haunting opening sequence featuring the titular animals populating the pages of John James Audobon's infamous book Birds of America, which was stolen (and ultimately recovered, of course), what follows is a truly mesmerizing cinematic experience.

What Makes 'American Animals' Unique?

Bart Layton did something quite visionary with American Animals. Splicing together interview segments with dramatized accounts of the actual events in the lead-up to the botched heist, he crafted a wholly unique window into an unsettling and at times darkly comic moment in history. Evan Peters plays Warren Lipka – the brash, bold personality of the group. Armed with chutzpah and an inextinguishable desire to shake up the existences of himself and his close friend Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan), the unthinkable is rendered a reality. Disenchanted with his life and looking for a higher purpose, he suggests, be it implicitly or explicitly, that they should attempt to seize invaluable books from the library at Transylvania State – items worth obscene amounts of money.

Guarded by little more than a fairly innocuous and unsuspecting librarian, the whole notion of slipping in and out without causing considerable harm seems theoretically and outrageously doable. What follows is captivating and, at times, nauseatingly tense. Lipka himself (in one of the earlier interview snippets) insists he was never the 'ringleader' of the posse, implying it was a group decision to premeditate the robbery and never the byproduct of any one person's sole motive. The movie's dramatized retelling strongly implies Lipka was the driving force, however. If the four robbers were the band, Lipka would be the most likely frontman as he had the strongest voice and the most outward drive. As the duo continues their planning, cobbling together disguises and blueprints and nicknames for each other (including a nice homage to Reservoir Dogs too, as the young men go about assigning each other names like Mr. Yellow and Mr. Green), the stakes continue to rise like a busted thermometer.

Deciding that two aren't enough to pull off the crime safely, they enlist two more to accompany them, with the wealthy Chas Allen III (Blake Jenner) to serve as a getaway driver and resourceful Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson), charged with overseeing logistical measures. Each member brings a different demeanor to the table, each has their own unique set of skills. Every decision is shadowed in doubt and this doubt is reinforced by interview segments with Spencer, who was always of the opinion that some 'insurmountable obstacle' would inevitably arise to break their momentum, put an end to their scheme, and deliver them back to reality. But it didn't. The group grew by two, and the heist haphazardly went ahead... What's radical about the film is the way director Layton so seamlessly interweaves interactions with the real people with the exceptionally well-cast portrayals in the movie's retellings. It's enlightening and entertaining while still being slyly humorous. And it delivers sequences worthy of any modern blockbuster.

Why Is 'American Animals' Underrated?

American Animals gets more and more exciting as it goes on, beautifully rendering accounts of events that may or may not have fully happened with conviction. Take Lipka's trip to the Netherlands to meet up with a mysterious fence (played by Udo Kier) prior to the robbery even happening. What is certain is that Spencer and Lipka embarked on a cross-country road trip to meet up with a liaison (who tips them off about the European contact). This rendezvous is brilliantly drawn in itself, as one of them insists the man they met was dressed in a scarf, while another insists the man they met wore white hair and appeared grizzled. Both versions are shown briefly before the story continues to hurtle ahead. The soundtrack also contains some absolute bangers. Take the welcome addition of Donovan's woozy psychedelic folk classic "Hurdy Gurdy Man," used cleverly here as Lipka wanders through Holland in a haze. Arguably most famous for the way David Fincher utilized the tune in Zodiac, the use of it here is equally effective in its smoky mystique.

Later, once they're in too deep – things get seriously anxiety-inducing. Initially planning to rob the museum on the day at least two of the group members are due to sit exams, the four lads arrive intricately dressed as elderly gentlemen. Donning false facial features and heavy attire, they enter, only to get a case of freezingly cold feet. The would-be thieves suss out the situation, before suddenly fleeing, reasoning that something was off. Layton's command of the craft and camera shines here, for while it serves as something of a false alarm both in the context of the story and the movie itself – the scene roars with life. It's a masterful tension building and serves as a mere precursor to the main event which arrives later. In keeping with history, the band rallies together again and pulls off the heist the second time around, terrifying the kindly librarian Betty Jean Gooch (Ann Dowd) in the process.

There's expert editing on display here as the dramatization plays out in between cutaways to Lipka and the others expressing remorse for how things went down. There's a high-speed getaway, there's mid-journey upchucking, and there's nonstop mayhem in the immediate aftermath of the heist – all filmed with supreme efficiency. While the conclusion is, of course, foregone (the boys are ultimately apprehended and the items returned), none of the suspense and wonder is remotely hindered. Using strikingly original techniques to do justice to a stupendously fascinating story, Layton created one of the most gut-wrenching true-crime stories ever. The actors are incendiary in their roles, particularly Barry Keoghan and Evan Peters, and it appears everyone involved subscribed wholeheartedly to the overarching objective – which was to create one of the most searingly unforgettable heist flicks ever to hit the silver screen. The journey is so vividly realized.

American Animals is available to buy or rent on Prime Video.

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