American Animals (2018)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

American Animals took me by surprise. I wasn't familiar with the true back-story about the events depicted in the film. I can accept it's a film and there may be deviations from the actual events at times. That said the movie feels like a very welcome blend of a documentary and a heist movie. While it's no action blockbuster it reaches a fine level of entertainment by well placed actual interviews with the real perpetrators and a fantastic sense of humor. It's still a black atmosphere as a level headed person watching just wants to shake the main characters and say "wake-up". The idea is so stupid, but it gets the point that within a person who is fairly intelligent, yet bored, there's a need for some kind of excitement. Most folks get involved with less benign ways of course. Here things go toward the unthinkable, at least in logical terms. This is the hook. The movie weaves the decent of these smart kids fantasies slowly becoming reality. It builds tension, and all without the usual Hollywood heist bombast. It's really sad, but since you see it as a voyeur it's safe and engaging. I do like heist flicks and I do feel Hollywood has actually ruined the genre more than ran with it. This is a film that gets so much across about the angst and unsavory elements it's actually a refreshing take on the genre. Plus it tells an interesting true crime story and as such still should reach a broad audience. I give the writers, director, and the actors kudos for stealing back the heist genre and doing with originality and aplomb. In the end you really feel sad for the mis-guided actions of four young men and the aftermath that will always remain with the librarian victim and the families who received such a shock.

This is novice director/writer Bart Layton's first full length film - previous credits are mainly documentaries, and this was the downfall for this film. The almost 2 hour length felt like 3 hours and really dragged out with the overly slow pace and unnecessary slo-mo scenes. Adding the real characters made this film feel like part documentary part film, which was annoying. It took away from the stories suspense and thrill as well as the great acting from the lead cast. Not sure why Bart chose this route, but had he not done so, this film would have been much better. The actual characters should have been introduced towards the end, or as an extra featurette in the DVD release, and he should have just focused on the films story instead of breaking the suspense each time the real life characters popped up.

Four young men mistake their lives for a movie and attempt one of the most audacious heists in U.S. history. American Animals was nowhere near as good as i was expecting it to be plus to be honest? i was expecting the whole 'heist' thing to have some heart and energy to it but unfortunately it didn't have any of that. The overall acting was also not as great as i was expecting especially from Evan Peters plus Blake Jenner's role was quite smaller than i imagined. It's not a bad film to say but it's definitely not as great as the trailer suggested or as i expected. (5/10)

Unique story telling with terrific acting. An enjoyable movie from start to finish.