Review: American Animals is nail-biting
Nail-biting from start to finish, Bart Layton’s American Animals blurs the line between documentary and fictionalised drama by telling the story of a group of young men, Spencer, Warren, Eric and Chas, who carry out the robbery of a rare book titled The Birds of America from the library at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
Pieced together as a highly dramatised film, composed of interviews with the real people involved in the story and actors playing them, American Animals often cuts between both actors and the actual people blurring the line between fact and fiction. Throughout, there is doubt on the reliability of individual memory of an incident that happened 7 years ago and the accuracy of documentary storytelling when presented as docudrama, especially when the details given in the story vary with each individual. An example in the film is when the same scene is presented from the perspective of two different people. Later on, Spencer mentions how he doubts what he actually remembers but would most likely choose what sounds the most exciting for the story. As with the game two truths and a lie, it is often easier to lie when minor details of a truth are twisted slightly, as they are harder to spot.
In the opening sequence the words ‘This is not based on true story’ appear in simple white text and change to ‘This is a true story’ foreshadowing doubt as to whether the story is true or not. Layton stretches the truth, allowing certain liberties in the film for dramatic effect in order to create a compelling piece of drama that is engaging to watch but could be criticised because a) an individual’s memories can be flawed due to time passing which blurs memories and, b) storytelling, no matter the genre, will always carry with it a certain bias when filmmakers make controlled choices on how they represent a story or how it is seen on screen.
As Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan) and Warren Lipka (Evan Peters) retell the story of their failed art heist through a series of pieces to camera and re-enactments, the line between the real people in the story and the actors that portray them blurs. In a scene where the four students prepare for their heist, Spencer (Barry Keoghan) makes eye contact with the real Spencer Reinhard as they drive by placing the real person in the story with the actor portraying him. Later on, during their first attempt at the heist, the group don disguises of old men along with Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner). As Spencer explains, ‘being old is the closest thing to being invisible’. Whilst this was met with laughs in the audience, there is a hint of truth to it sadly, for perhaps the assumption young people have is that the elderly in our society are invisible, vulnerable and often forgotten.
Reflecting on the role of actors whose job is to take on another identity on screen, American Animals makes a point on the believability of representation, truth in documentary, and how an audience interprets what is presented to them. If it is seen as deceptive to wear disguises to conceal one’s identity, could it not be also seen as deceptive to use actors and feature them so closely with interviews of the real-life subjects they are portraying? Not really. Most likely when we watch a film, we do so for enjoyment and escapism, allowing for flaws in the truth or the suspension of disbelief in order to follow a narrative. In American Animals there are some scenes that are absurd, causing you to you wonder if they have been scripted, made up by the interviewed subjects, or actually true.
American Animals is a heist film which looks and feels really cool with a well-known cast of young male actors who portray the retelling of the heist as exciting. Tension is created throughout the film with the use of a ticking of a clock, the sharpening of a pencil, abrupt cello, extreme close-ups, shallow depth of field, crushed blacks, and abrupt cuts in the edit. The result is that you become quickly immersed in the story and feel anxious, tense and feel a sense of thrill and excitement, most likely due to the fact you’re watching something rebellious that is illegal or at least mentions it.
Perhaps the danger of living a comfortable life as a young privileged upper/middle-class white American male is the seemingly ordinary or mundane routine their lives lead and the desire to have a, ‘life altering experience in order to create art.’ The toxic belief that a true artist or to truly live is to commit a crime in order to make a name for themselves is dangerous because not all experiences need to be extraordinary in order to live.
The film has been met with much criticism online from people commenting that the story glorifies their crime and the actions of the four students, and could encourage copycat behaviour. Reinhard responds this way on twitter, ‘The movie acknowledges that we were stupid kids and does not applaud us for our actions.’ It is this indeed this stupidity that young men can be filled with that hinders one’s better judgment. The group Google how to plan a heist, borrow heist movies, and write notes on their heist plans, and buy their disguises and use their own email which links their actions to them.
Perhaps ordinary people commit crimes not because they are inherently bad but because of external factors that motivate them. The choices they make are filled with assumptions that their actions will benefit or are for the greater good, people may be willing to bend the rules if it can be seen as benefiting more in the long run, the idea of risk and reward. In this case, the students saw the risk merely scaring the special collections librarian Betty Jean Gooch (Ann Dowd) in order to steal the book, sell it, and give some money back to her as an apology. Seemingly the risk was low, a book locked in a cabinet guarded by a librarian and the reward was high, obtaining a rare book which was worth millions of dollars. Turns out there was no reward.
When plans go wrong people end up running on fear and impulse when threatened, not thinking clearly and making rash decisions and hence mistakes bringing out the worst in themselves and criticising and arguing with one another.
Perhaps however, American Animals incorrectly places emphasis on the actions of the four students rather than the hurt their actions caused their family and in particular the librarian Betty Jean Gooch who was traumatised by the robbery and has only spoken about the incident this year since the film’s release. For an incident that occurred in 2004, it has taken many years for Betty to accept and forgive the men for their actions.
As Warren Lipka regretfully admits, ‘we were not going to hurt her but we did.’ The hurt they caused went beyond their physical actions on the day of the heist, questions of criminal behaviour and perhaps should not focus on the four students but rather Betty Gooch who comments about the risk the four decided to take, ‘once you cross that line it is dangerous.’
By bringing the focus of the film on the stupid criminal actions of the four young males and having Betty the librarian represented as merely a poor the victim of crime, American Animals presents to us the problem with society and culture that often gives too great a voice to privileged middle class males, representing them onscreen rather than women like Betty Gooch who deserves recognition for their part of the story.
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Australian Release Date: October 4. The film is already out in other territories.
Review by Addy Fong.
