FIERCE CREATURES (AMERICAN ANIMALS)

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Bart Layton's 'American Animals' is a rare bird.

It blends fiction with interviews with the real life people depicted by its cast to create a jaw dropping docudrama that can hold its own against any heist movie.

Yet the heist that inspired it has to be one of the most naive ever portrayed onscreen.

Inspired by an audacious attempt in Kentucky by students in 2004 to raid Transylvania University's library and steal rare books, writer-director Bart Layton delivers a thrilling tale that has cult movie written all over it.


Dublin actor Barry Keoghan plays Spencer Reinhard, a talented arts student from a nice middle class family who falls in with Evan Peters' wild sports scholar Warren Lipka.

Believing he needs a more thrilling life to inspire great art, Spencer enjoys hanging about with Warren as he flirts with danger, stealing meat from a local restaurant.

A guided tour of the university library by Spencer, however, inspires their bizarre robbery.

Spencer is mesmerised by a glass case containing the painter and naturist John James Auborn's 'Birds of America' and when he mentions to Warren the book's multi-million dollar value, this leads to them hatching a plot to steal it and other rare books.


To understand what they need to do, the duo immerse themselves in heist movies like Stanley Kubrick's 'The Killing' and Lewis Milestone's 1960 Rat Pack original movie of 'Ocean's 11'.

Through Warren's criminal contacts in Lexington, they make contact with someone in New York who can act as a fence, helping them offload the stolen goods abroad. 

When it becomes clear they will need accomplices, they recruit childhood acquaintances - Jared Abrahamson's Eric Borsuk who helps plan the logistics of the heist and Blake Jenner's Chas Allen to drive the getaway vehicle.

Adopting colour coded nicknames in a scene mimicking Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs', they meticulously stake out the venue - noting staff routines, mapping out escape routes in the building, practising and timing car getaway runs and even constructing a model of the library.


However, they are troubled by the thought of having to harm Ann Dowd's special collections librarian Betty Jean Gooch, with Warren eventually relenting and saying he will take care of it.

Disguised as elderly collectors, the gang embarks on the raid but, as with all great heist movies, it doesn't go to plan.

Most documentaries use fiction to illustrate the narrative told by real life interviewees onscreen.

Layton's genius is that his approach is the other way round.

Interviews with the real life Reinhard, Lipka, Borsuk, Allen and their families illuminate the fictionalised account that unfolds onscreen.


However Layton also has fun affectionately parodying the heist film genre, with nods to Steven Soderbergh's 'Oceans 11' and Bryan Singer's 'The Usual Suspects'.

Keoghan and Peters shine as the hairbrains behind the crazy heist, capturing thsir youthful naivete as they wander into situations way above their heads.

They are effectively supported by Abrahamson and Jenner - the former, in particular, is a wonderfully jittery participant in the heist. 

The film also boasts an amusing cameo by Udo Kier as a Dutch black market art and collectibles dealer.


The cast are served well by Layton's razor sharp script which fully mines the humour out of a bizarre story.

He also knows exactly how to handle the film's big set piece raid.

Layton has fun too toying with his audience over the reliability of the narrative, with his interviewees and characters at one point contradicting each other's memories of a particular rendezvous.

He is ably assisted by Nick Fenton, Chris Gill, Luke Dunkley and Julian Carr's whose editing ensures the events unfold at the right pace.


A great modern heist movie boasts a strong soundtrack and 'American Animals' does not disappoint, with an eclectic mix of tracks by the likes of The Ramones, Donovan, Mos Def, Ice Cube, Leonard Cohen, Small Faces and The Doors.

But its greatest strength is its dazzling blend of fiction, seamlessly switching from the recreation of events to interviews with the real life people at the centre of the real life drama.

The factual strand of 'American Animals' serves as a reminder of how life sometimes can be stranger than fiction.

But it also emphasises how astute Layton has been bringing this remarkable story to the big screen.

'American Animals' deserves to be a cult film.

('American Animals' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on September 7, 2018 and was made available for streaming and on DVD on January 14, 2019)

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