American Animals Review

A heist film about heist films. Ultimately conventional, but still an interesting deconstruction of the heist, its seductive pull, and its attendant romanticization in pop culture. However, this deconstruction is best handled on a visceral, moment to moment basis in the film rather than on a grander thematic basis, as those themes and motivations are clumsily jabbed at without any strong underpinnings. The documentary aspect of the film is unnecessary and provides too little insight into both the psychology of the characters and the idea of memory. But still…the actual heist is quite the sequence, and the fairly unconventional turn the filmmaking takes later in the story truly does grasp at something intriguing. It’s not quite drawn out, but it’s enough to make this a very solid film.

GRADE: B

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