American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton - Eight out of 10

American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton

Eight out of 10

Excellent and original!

It may be a wrong impression, but this film is unique in its docudrama approach, which inserts the original protagonists in the midst of the plot – yes, there is even a trend, quite a number of features show the audience the real characters, but in a different manner.

Argo, Made in Dagenham among others, are based on real stories and they present the real people involved in them at the very end, but American Animals has the real members of the group of four interviewed at different stages of their operation, explaining their feelings, thoughts, aspirations and mistakes.

This felt original, interesting and inviting.

Furthermore, the development of the events has little in common with other heists, although there are so many stories of the kind that shared elements are doubtful present, but the aborted first plan, the results of the planned theft are unexpected, with the added mystery of the Holland trip

Was there any trip to Holland?

Warren Lipka aka Evan Peters and Spencer Reinhard aka Barry Keoghan – perhaps best known for the major role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer – are the original duo that think about a major break that would change their lives .

At the University of Transylvania, there are a number of exceptional, old, rare, extremely valuable books that the protagonists see as part of an organized tour of the library and which are cared for and guarded by only one person, Betty Jean Gooch, a woman who does not scare potential robbers away, at least as first look.

“Nobody wants to be ordinary” is written on the poster of this film as perhaps the line that may explain much, if not everything that happens in the motion picture

They should get the books, sell them and have a huge amount of money – this is the plan that would make them out of the ordinary – and the two friends start seriously thinking about getting the Darwin, auburn and other masterpieces that are so easy to get…apparently.

As they think about the details, getting in there, taking out the guardian – which would be a puzzle for such a long time, anticipating without revealing much - Insha’Allah! – up to the moment when the operation is in progress – they realize they need more than two people for the plan to work.

They invite therefore Erik Borsuk, they sketch the design of the building the necessary steps, program a further visit so that they know their location better and then they think about the step after the taking of the precious loot, the intermediary that would give them the money.

They contact a local man who gives them an email address, which would provide a contact with another middleman, who would give them the name of yet another, in exchange for $ 500, exchanged near Central Park, in New York, but the complicated process is still not ended.

A trip to the Netherlands is necessary, where two interesting, self-possessed, sarcastic, shady, ironical individuals say they are interested in the valuable items, although one says in Dutch, “the little prick is stealing from his own people”.

If there is an official evaluation, from an auction house, the couple of – we can call them – criminals would offer between 30 and 40% of the estimated value and Warren Lipka and Spencer Reinhard are already joyful, celebrating a victory.

Nevertheless, they realize they have to have a fourth man and Chas Allen becomes the final member of the gang which moves on to the final stages, the latter becomes the designated getaway driver, who needs to train and get to a record speed on the itinerary that they establish for the end part of the game.

To avoid identification, the four young aspiring robbers decide to disguise as old men, thinking that the old are invisible, nobody takes notice of them, they arrive at the library, ready to launch the game, when they notice that the woman in charge, Betty Jean Gooch, is not alone, in fact there are four people inside and this is enough to abort the operation.

This is one of the special moments of the motion picture, for there is a relief, a feeling that maybe they just abandon the whole criminal project after all – this cinephile was looking for evidence in the interviews with the real characters that would suggest that they would not go to jail in the end.

Alas, they decide they would change some details in the plan, but they will go along with it anyway, Warren Lipka seems to be the mastermind throughout and the one who would incapacitate the guardian, only when it comes down to immobilizing the middle aged woman, he cannot do it and brings Eric Borsuk in to help and this is where the plan does not look like it would work perfectly.

Avoiding spoiler alerts, let us just say that there are things that do not work well, from the loot that is dropped to some extent, phone numbers given when it is not wise, and a botched evaluation attempt, coupled with internal divisions, tensions and intense arguments, followed by perhaps inescapable breakdowns.

American Animals is a very special, interesting motion picture.