Today's review is the 2018 drama / crime film, American Animals, starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, and among others. It's also directed by Bart Layton, whose mostly known for documentary work such as Locked Up Abroad and he didn't get his actual major film debut until he did The Imposters back in 2012. Unfortunately, this is another film that went practically unnoticed. With it's lack of marketing and having a January release is probably what hurt the films notoriety. The trailers looked pretty interesting and I've seen some people give this film quite the praise, so I decided to give it a watch. Upon seeing it, I must say it was a damn good movie. Pros: The casts performances' were pretty damn good. I always enjoy Evan Peters in everything he does. I find him to be quiet underrated. He doesn't get enough work in my opinion. I really enjoyed the story as well. I like how the director was able to use the real life people and blended them narrating the story while the cast was portraying them at the same time. I can be quite picky when it comes to a theoretical film trying to mix a story with a documentary touch to it. I felt like this director did it with perfection. The tone of the film flows pretty well. You kind of get that Ocean's film vibe at first, but then things turn quite dark as the story progresses. As I stated above, this is based on a true story so things are pretty grounded when it comes to them planning a heist. These are kids that are trying to pull this big heist off and of course things do go off the deep end. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the film keeps things realistic. I like how the director dug deep into each cast members emotions. You can see when the things go off the deep end, they're truly terrified. I absolutely love the editing in this film. It goes for that unique touch with one scene blending into the next scene, similar to 2006's Running Scared. I absolutely love the ending. It keeps you guessing if certain things went the way it did like an ambiguous story. It's kind of hard for me to explain but if you've seen the film, then you know what I'm talking about. My hats off to the real life people involved in this film. They did absolutely fantastic. Clint Eastwood take notes. I thought the references to Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs was pretty funny. Cons:
Surprisingly enough I don't have hardly any problems with this film. Maybe they could've went into more detail on how they were able to get certain items to prepare for the heist. It's sad that I've seen so many films in 2018 that just got the shaft. So many films last year that went under radar went on to being great movies. I highly recommend it.
Final Grade:
What were you thoughts on this film? Leave me a comment below and I'll see you in my next review.