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For some, the notion of orchestrating a heist, much like the thrilling escapades depicted in films, holds a certain allure. However, there’s a significant gap between cinematic fantasy and the gritty reality of such endeavors. In Bart Layton’s “American Animals,” this distinction becomes evident as two young men, under the influence of marijuana and inspired by a stack of heist thrillers from Blockbuster, particularly Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing,” begin to devise their own audacious art heist.
The Orchard
In a nod to Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” they adopt color-coded aliases, a move that highlights the whimsical yet perilous nature of their plan. This underrated gem of a crime drama from 2018, which perhaps hasn’t received the recognition it deserves, presents a gripping narrative that is now conveniently available for streaming on Tubi, allowing audiences to delve into this stranger-than-fiction tale.
At the heart of the story lies a collection of rare books housed in a special room at Transylvania University’s library in Lexington, Kentucky. Among these treasures is John J. Audubon’s “Birds of America,” a 19th-century masterpiece valued at $12 million. The plot follows Spencer Reinhard (played by Barry Keoghan), Warren Lipka (Evan Peters), Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson), and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner), whose diverse personalities converge on a shared ambition to steal these invaluable works. Although it reads like a work of fiction, “American Animals” is a dramatization of real events, with the actual culprits narrating their tale alongside their on-screen counterparts.
British director Bart Layton redefines the docudrama genre with “American Animals,” blending documentary elements with cinematic storytelling. Much like his acclaimed 2012 documentary thriller “The Imposter,” which unraveled the bizarre saga of Frédéric Bourdin, a con artist who deceived a Texan family into believing he was their missing son, Nicholas Barclay, Layton’s latest venture pushes the boundaries of traditional documentary filmmaking.
In “American Animals,” Layton expertly intertwines the real-life accounts of Reinhard, Lipka, Borsuk, and Allen with dramatized reenactments, creating a seamless fusion of reality and fiction. The film’s narrative is often shaped by the perspectives of the real individuals, leading to intriguing interactions, such as when Lipka converses with Evan Peters, who portrays him, to debate the inception of their ill-fated scheme.
American Animals blends narrative filmmaking and documentary testimonials
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One of the film’s most poignant scenes features a chilling moment where the real Reinhard watches his cinematic double, portrayed by Keoghan, drive towards the life-altering mistake. While many aspects of the story are straightforward, the differing recollections among the foursome introduce a layer of complexity, rendering them as unreliable narrators seemingly tampering with the narrative. Despite their influence on the storytelling, Layton ensures that “American Animals” holds these young men accountable for their actions.
Layton was lauded for crafting an engrossing documentary that utilized re-enactments to accentuate the story’s strange nature, but his sophomore feature behind the camera takes it a few steps further. “American Animals” is the result of a documentary account and its Hollywood adaptation essentially bleeding into one another. The four boys often inform how the film plays out, with one of the more interesting merges being Lipka speaking to “American Horror Story” star Evan Peters within the movie as to whether or not it was his idea that kicked this whole thing off.
The most effective scene is a haunting image of Reinhard watching his fictional duplicate (Keoghan) drive by on his way to making the mistake that would upend his life. While large swaths of the story are pretty cut and dried, the foursome remember certain details differently, creating a symphony of unreliable narrators that makes it appear as if they’re hacking the film in progress. But for all of the ways in which they influence “American Animals,” Layton never quite lets them off the hook.
American Animals confronts the messy consequences of heist movies
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Early in “American Animals,” an “Ocean’s Eleven”-inspired fantasy envisions the crew waltzing into the secured room in suits and ties as they acquire the books without breaking a sweat, scored to Junkie XL’s 2002 remix of “A Little Less Conversation.” In the real heist that “American Animals” ultimately builds towards, however, the “movie” portion doesn’t come to save these four privileged idiots from the bed they’ve decided to lie in. Layton spends the first half putting you in their simplistic mindset, while the second half deconstructs the excitement of being in your own heist movie.
It’s upsetting to watch, not only because getting these books out isn’t as easy as they believed it would be, but because of how they subdue librarian Betty Jean Gooch (Ann Dowd). There’s a lingering uneasiness in the planning process for the human element at play. Evan Peters’ Warren keeps pushing the conversation off, while Jared Abrahamson’s Eric seeks to eliminate his role in her neutralization entirely. It only makes their inevitable confrontation that much more uncomfortable.
The four real-life participants of the 2004 “Transy Book Heist” talk about crossing that line. Layton does an excellent job of showing the many opportunities of escape that were afforded to them and how they carried on anyway. Their screw-ups and poor planning would be hilarious if it weren’t so embarrassing. Layton may seek to understand the rationale behind these well-off kids doing something so reckless, yet never veers away from holding them publicly accountable. It’s a real hidden gem of a heist movie that truly deserves to be recognized among the genre’s best.
