As a result of their boring study life, Spencer Reinhard and his friend Warren Lipka need to do something exciting. They get a crazy idea about stealing rare books of The Birds of America. Warren meets some of black market buyers who tell him that they are ready to pay tens millions for these books, the thing that makes both of them much interested for this stealing.
It hits the usual genre beats, and plays a predictable rock soundtrack as it lurches between comedy and drama, but neither the story nor the characters really mesh.
[VIDEO ESSAY] Bart Layton adds a meaty layer of social realism to the film. Get out your knife and fork; this is one movie you can really sink your teeth into.
[The kids'] meticulous preparations begin with typing "how to plan a heist" into Google and continue with watching every heist film ever made, though they manage to overlook the primary lesson of all such films-that something always goes wrong.
American Animals doesn't need an "easy out" to explain its characters' poor decisions. The propulsive energy of the movie, once it starts to take shape, mirrors the inevitability of them seeing their bad idea all the way through.
Maybe they were just spoilt kids with a false sense of grandeur... Whatever it was, it made for a great and almost comical story, and Layton brings it home.
