Review of American Animals (2018) by Amehanna — 20 Nov 2018

With Hollywood’s constant praising of SJW’s and cuddling of hypersensitive millennials, it was only a matter of time before a film came along as a rebuttal.

Bart Layton’s AMERICAN ANIMALS follows the extraordinary and thrilling true story of four college friends with seemingly good lives who risk it all when they plan to steal 18th century rare books from Transylvania University.

What sets this film apart from any other film out this year, is Layton’s flawless and clever unification of documentary and narrative – blurring the lines between fact and fiction – to the point where one can’t even trust the film’s protagonists.

In a feat of creative ingenuity, he spreads the dramatization of the audacious daytime theft with post-prison testimonials from the real criminals who organized the heist, who end up serving the narrative like a Greek chorus commenting on the action taking place.

This sets the narrative stage as Layton and co. take the audience down a painfully truthful path of the fraudulent American dream that the millennials have all but taken as biblical.

Ideologically, it is a prophetic story of a lost and increasingly individualistic generation fed on a mantra that its lives would end up being interesting and remarkable in some way, only to one day realize that reality is much harsher than the fantastical virtual world they live in.

AMERICAN ANIMALS is the millennials’ version of Icarus.

In the myth, it is young Icarus’s ego and his blind outlook on freedom and life that brings him to his fall, and in Layton’s film, it is that same blindness and reluctance to let go of their fantasy that causes the four friends to fall as well.

The film’s narrative is not the only thing that makes it easily one of the best films of the year so far.

Layton’s vision and choice to incorporate elements of documentary filmmaking alongside tropes from the fictional movies the young men emulated in the heist, mirrors the protagonists’ increasing detachment from reality – taking the audience further and further down the rabbit hole of delusion, and ultimately the rather hopeless and heartbreaking end of the film.

The audience knowing that this story is actually not fictional, though it is being told in a fictional manner, pulls the audience in and brings them that much closer to the characters – and this is why the film succeeds.

Everything about the film is grounded in a reality – this is certain – the way it is presented however is where the artistry comes into play.

The cast is just beyond superb.

Evan Peters steals the show once more, there is nothing this young man can’t do. Peters is a thinking person's actor — and this is clear in the way that he delicately brings out a character's nuances.

Barry Keoghan, whose performance in THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER horrified audiences, returns to another awkward and albeit internally and emotionally torn character.

Both actors play off of each other with such great ease that it is hard to believe that they are not the characters that they have embodied.

Structurally, the film’s execution is a home run.

Never has a film infused fiction and reality with such an emotional and genuine punch, where no decision comes off as gimmicky or forced. On the contrary, every decision, every visual echo, and every word spoken was organic and more importantly necessary in order to deliver the film’s overall theme.

AMERICAN ANIMALS is not for the faint of heart, it is not for the idealists, and it is not for the dreamers – it is a much-needed wakeup call.

Millennials have been brainwashed into believing they are special, they can take on the world, that their uniqueness, and not how much effort they put in, is their ticket to success, and when they finally realize how difficult life is and how merciless reality is, they come crashing down as their wings burst into flames.

Layton’s film gives voice to the generation of young people who are unable to express their individuality and end up turning to the corruption of the American dream.

Cinematographically, Ole Bratt Birkeland, the film’s director of photography, delivers on every level keeping up with the cast’s charisma and emotional power, the narrative’s high energy tension, as well as its shifts in perspectives and accounts.

Not one shot in this film is bland, and not one camera move redundant, but rather educated and purposeful.

Lastly, AMERICAN ANIMALS has one of the most interesting soundscapes since A QUIET PLACE, from earlier this year.

Just as the visuals shift between narrative and documentary, so does the sound shift from diegetic to nondiegetic adding to the blurring of fiction and reality.

Though, 2018 has been a rather dull year so far in the box office there have been some out-of-this-world powerful films, and AMERICAN ANIMALS is one of them.