American Animals

Although Americans Animals, the new film by Bart Dayton (Imposters) comes to theatres during the current golden age of docudramas it fails to illicit that same feeling of intrigue and intimate story telling that viewers have become accustomed to through our various streaming services.

The story revolves around the four real life college students who in 2004 robbed the Transylvania University library of rare books by Charles Darwin with hopes of selling them on the black market.   A story that could have been broken down into episodic statements and exploration was instead crammed into 110 minutes of privileged college student angst.

I guess that’s the point right? Why would four white, upper-middle class kids think they could, or even take on the task of robbing Transylvania University of millions of dollars worth of rare books?

Boredom? The fear of taking their spot in the rat race of adulthood? To find themselves 10 years from now becoming their father, their parents with a nice corner lot home, two kids and a dog?

The stuff of nightmares I know. A true-life crime drama of white collar kids in Kentucky scheming up an idiot plan of theft, robbery and larceny, all while taking their final exams. Not that compelling but interesting, especially when you bring in the four real life criminals 14 years after the robbery to narrate their parts and guide their fictional character along its narrative way.

There are shades of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon here as the four in question have variations of their own truths but for the most part they seemed subdued (7 years in federal prison will do that), even reluctant participations hoping to get a payday for their role.

I’ve stated this before but it’s not the easiest job to make a film about an event where the reveal in the story is already known, especially when that event was a simple college library heist. Too bad too because the leads Evan Peters (American Horror Story) and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) did a fairly good job in portraying these disenfranchised young men.

This story had all the makings of a good docu-series you might see Netflix gobble up but from a narrative perspective we needed more. More insight to the kids, more disagreement of facts, more information about the supposed black-market fencers, basically more minute details that could lead to something of substance.

Instead we’re left a bland tale of events shaped in a narrative size box.