American Animals – Somer Valley FM Film Review

Hey thanks for checking into the Somer Valley FM Film Review on Somer Valley FM. While I have never personally been into ornithology something has peaked my interest. This week we do a bit of bird spotting across the pond with American Animals.

Board art student Spencer Reinhard is looking for something to excite him before he moves on into the real world. He and his friends Warren, Erik and Chas decide to have a little fun by stealing rare books from the school library. However, despite all their careful planning, the heist isn’t the smooth ride that they expect.

American Animals proudly proclaims that it isn’t based on a true story, it is a true story. However, it becomes clear that that is not the case. Like I, Tonya before it, American Animals intersperses its action with interviews. These challenge the validity of what is happening on screen. However unlike I, Tonya the actual people are being interviewed. This leads to some very creative set pieces, like fourth wall breaks, transitions and retellings of the same scene. While these exciting sections disappear the interviews and action remain to reach a gut punch of an ending.

Evan Peters, an American Horror Story and X-Men alum, is one of the actors giving the hardest punches. He plays as the slightly rebellious Warren, who almost becomes the leader of the group. While Barry Keoghan from Dunkirk, Everybody Wants Some Blake Jenner and Jared Abrahamson provide a more grounded and emotional centre spiralling around Peters stardom as the heist goes from Hollywood fantasy to frightening reality.

American Animals is an odd combination of watchable popcorn fun and emotionally harrowing. It plays with audience expectations of a heist movie and the nature of narration in an intelligent way that leaves you off balance not sure who to believe, who to root for. It is truly Amoral like the American Animals themselves.

Thanks for reading this latest Somer Valley FM Film Review, you can listen to the radio broadcast here on the Somer Valley FM website, or if you want to read a full review and are looking for blasts from the Somer Valley FM Past head on over to my blog: Corrupted Record