Review #1,392: 'American Animals' (2018)

For decades the movies have taught us how the perfect heist goes down. You need a group of big personalities - all experts in a required field - an intricate plan, blueprints to map out the target, and the best gadgets a cheeky crook can buy. And of course, you need a handsome, charismatic leader, usually in the form of a Frank Sinatra, George Clooney or Sandra Bullock. Yes, a director such as Steven Soderbergh knows how to deliver a robbery with style, panache and a sense of fun, but the real world operates a little differently. American Animals, based on the theft of some rare and valuable books from the Transylvania University library by four kids who seemingly had no reason to dare such a feat, has great fun combining these two worlds. Director Bart Layton, who warmed up with 2012's true crime documentary The Imposter, relays this tale as both documentary and dramatic reconstruction, like Touching the Void but with more interaction between the actors and real-life subjects.

It sounds like "look at me" film-making, and it arguably is, but the film is stitched together so wonderfully that you can only sit back and admire the swagger of it all. The world Layton captures is incredibly dark indeed, one of degrading fraternity initiation ceremonies and endless supermarkets isles lined with colourful food packaging designed to create the illusion of choice. At least, that's how our two protagonists - anti-heroes may be the more suitable term - see it. Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan) is a talented art student who feels like there must be more to life than this. His best friend Warren Lipka (Evan Peters), the joint-smoking loudmouth who is up for anything, feels very much the same, only he's way more angry about it. During a routine tour of the University library, Spencer learns that the lightly-guarded building houses the valuable The Birds of America by John James Aubudon, and only a nice old lady is there to watch over it. Stealing it should be easy, so Spencer confides in Warren, who quickly takes the lead in planning and executing the audacious heist.

There's a wonderful moment during American Animals where the foursome (Jared Abrahamson's Eric Borsuk and Blake Jenner's Chas Allen are also drafted later on) imagine their plan playing out. It's like ballet, with every cabinet opening with ease and every book gathered up falling gently into their bags. And of course, they're all wearing tuxedos. Earlier on we see Spencer and Warren doing research, only people don't write books about the perfect robberies they've carried out, so they're left with movies. The likes of Rififii, The Killing and Reservoir Dogs are their textbooks, so it's no surprise when they're caught off-guard when the reality of the situation smacks them in the face. The biggest obstacle is the nice old lady, Betty Jean Gooch (the always-great Ann Dowd), who they imagine will fall gracefully into an unconscious state after a zap from a taser. In reality, she kicked, screamed and wet herself, but the boys carried on with their plan anyway. With the real Spencer, Warren, Eric and Chas telling their own stories to camera, American Animals could have run the risk of softening or even glamorising this story, but Layton is careful to point out the consequences, and the rippling effect it had on everybody caught up in it. It's an astonishing piece of work that ramps up the tension to unbearable levels, crafted by a film-maker keen to breathe new life into a well-worn genre.


Directed by: Bart Layton
Starring: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Jared Abrahamson, Blake Jenner, Ann Dowd, Udo Kier
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,054: 'Everybody Wants Some!!' (2016)

Fresh off the critical success of Boyhood, a coming-of-age project 12 years in the making, writer/director Richard Linklater has returned to the genre he no doubt by now feels entirely comfortable in, the slacker comedy. Dubbed as a 'spiritual sequel' to one of his most beloved movies, Dazed and Confused (1993), Everybody Wants Some!! - a title taken from a Van Halen song - follows a group of baseball jocks in college over the course of 3 days before class, and arguably real life, finally starts.

It's Texas, 1980, and freshman and promising pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) arrives at one of the two decrepit neighbouring houses set aside for the college baseball team, where he is greeted with a mixture of both excited curiosity and suspicious disdain. Finnegan (Glen Powell), Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) and Roper (Ryan Guzman), a few of the older students who welcome Jake and fellow freshman Plummer (Temple Baker) with a bit more warmth, take the new arrivals on a car journey around campus, where they prepare themselves for a few days of booze, drugs, parties, and trying to convince members of the opposite sex to sleep with them.

Linklater has a distinct feel for a sense of place. Like Dazed and Confused, he somehow manages to conjure up feelings of nostalgia for viewers who weren't even alive at the time. Having been born in 1984, I sadly wasn't there for the 1976 of Dazed or the 1980 of Everybody Wants Some!!, but the two films feel as if you're watching something made at the time rather than a period piece. Questionable fashion choices and even more questionable facial-hair are all present here, as is the obligatory classic soundtrack. which features an amusing rendition of Rapper's Delight amongst a more rock-based sound. The biggest issue people may have the film is that nothing much happens at all, so Linklater takes a huge gamble in assuming audiences will warm to its hefty ensemble.

After all, the bulk of the characters are indistinguishable jocks doing bong hits and offering their unique blend of wisdom for the majority of the film. While this approach may run its course before the credits roll, there is some genuine wisdom to be found here, along with a tinge of sadness. Everybody Wants Some!! is a love letter to that time of your life when you are filled with optimism and the world is yours to explore, and Jake and his friends' journey of discovery and fulfilment is a rite-of-passage experienced by most young men and women. It could also be interpreted as a search for identity as the group wander from their usual disco haunt and try out line-dancing, a punk concert, and a themed costume party set up by performing arts majors, including the auburn-haired girl of Jake's dreams (Zoey Deutch). Call it what you will, but the film's power lies within Linklater's eye for nostalgia, delivering a final shot that captures more feeling than most films struggle to create in 90 minutes.


Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch, Temple Baker, J. Quinton Johnson, Juston Street, Wyatt Russell, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie