We took a peek at Bart Layton's American Animals, which blurs the lines between documentary and fiction in its portrayal of the real-life story of one of the most audacious heists in US history...
Director: Bart Layton
Starring: Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, Barry Keoghan
Running time: 116 mins
To what extent should the adaptation of a true story remain authentic to the actual events which took place? Bart Layton seeks to answer this in his latest film American Animals, in which the real-life criminal subjects frequently interrupt, fact-check and even speak to their fictional counterparts as they plan to steal a rare collection of books worth millions of dollars. It’s an interesting concept, and one which requires the film to walk the line between documentary and heist movie; go too far one way and it risks condoning the subjects’ actions, too far the other and the tale simply becomes sensationalised.
While the decision to make the film half-documentary, half-adaptation could just be seen as a gimmick, here it acts as a reflection of the characters. They quote films incessantly, watch genre classics such as Rififi and The Sting as ‘research’, and even their code-names are taken straight from Reservoir Dogs (which one of the characters is quick to establish as "probably my least favourite Tarantino film"). The characters’ love of film is represented on-screen by the deliberate echoing of past crime movies, sometime subtle, and sometimes blatant, such as their imagined heist being set to the same music as that of Ocean’s Eleven. If the story is sensationalised in any way, then it is done so by the characters themselves rather than by the film.
Though the film does eventually make the audience question its characters’ actions, it all feels slightly too little, too late
Unlike the films the characters are inspired by, American Animals presents the heist itself in a thoroughly deglamourised – though incredibly tense – fashion. It is also here, however, that the ethics of shooting a film in this way become murky. It becomes all the more obvious that we have only heard the side of the criminals themselves, with arguably the most important real-life testimony, that of the victims of their crime, left until the very end. Until this point, the criminals have painted themselves as seeking some kind of thrill, but it later becomes clear that their actions are in fact destructive and inhumane.
While American Animals uses the medium of film to show how easily the young men were manipulated into the crime by movies, the way in which it persuades the audience to root for the criminals is dubious to say the least. Though the film does eventually make the audience question its characters’ actions, it all feels slightly too little, too late. The updates on their lives focus far more on their redemption than on the condemnation of what they did, the more unsavoury aspects of the crime appear minimised. While the film is open about the fact that it is unable to portray the ‘real’ events – the opening even states "this is not based on a true story" – it does little to address the ethics of presenting them in such a redemptive way.
Did you know? During filming the actors were not allowed to meet their real life counterparts because director Bart Layton feared they would sympathise and/or play them in a certain light.
American Animals is screening at Broadway Cinema until Thursday 20 September
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