American Animals | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bart Layton |
Written by | Bart Layton |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Ole Bratt Birkeland |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Anne Nikitin |
Production companies | |
Distributed by |
|
Release dates |
|
Running time | 116 minutes [1] |
Countries |
|
Language | English |
Box office | $4.1 million [3] |
American Animals is a 2018 docudrama heist film written and directed by Bart Layton. Starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, and Ann Dowd, it is an account of the Transylvania University book heist which took place at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky in 2004. [4] The film splices actors playing out the events before, during, and after the heist with interview segments of the real-life people involved.
American Animals premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2018. The film was theatrically released in the United States on June 1, 2018, by The Orchard and MoviePass Ventures. [5] Among other awards the film won the Junior Jury Award at The Montclair Film Festival. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, particularly for its screenplay, acting, use of unreliable narrators, and an unconventional storytelling structure that fused real-life characters and actors representing those characters.
Spencer Reinhard, an art student seeking excitement or tragedy for inspiration, is given a tour of Transylvania University library's rare-book collection; his eye is drawn to a rare first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America . He and his friend Warren Lipka, a rebellious student on an athletic scholarship at the University of Kentucky, discuss the possibility of stealing it and other rare books. [6] They note that the collection is guarded by only one librarian, whom they believe they could easily overpower before stealing the books and escaping via the staff elevator. Warren travels to Amsterdam to meet black-market buyers who express interest, informing Spencer they could make millions. They later enlist the help of two friends: Eric Borsuk to provide logistics and Chas Allen as the getaway driver.
They make an appointment for a private viewing of the collection in order to gain access to the room, and arrive disguised as elderly businessmen; but they abort the heist when Warren sees multiple librarians in the room. Spencer wants to abandon the plan, but Warren persuades him and the others to try again the next day. Spencer acts as a lookout as Warren and Eric, without disguises, enter the library. Warren clumsily uses a stun gun on the librarian, making Eric help restrain her. They blunder to the exit, dropping The Birds of America, but escape with two books.
The group travels to Christie's auction house in New York to get the authentication of value Warren said the Dutch buyers required. Spencer is told he has to return the next day and leaves his cell phone number with an assistant. Chas berates Spencer for using a phone number that can be identified as his, and they return to Lexington with the books. Shortly after, Spencer realizes the police will also be able to trace the email address they used to make the appointments with Christie's and the library; the FBI eventually does, and they are arrested.
In documentary interviews with the real-life thieves filmed years after they are released from prison, they express regret. Spencer suspects Warren lied about going to Amsterdam in order to convince the others to partake in the heist. Eric and Chas now live in California as a writer and a fitness coach, respectively; Warren studies filmmaking in Philadelphia; and Spencer lives in Lexington as an artist.
Warren Lipka, Spencer Reinhard, Chas Allen, Eric Borsuk and Betty Jean Gooch all appear as themselves, along with Reinhard's parents, Allen's mother, Lipka's father, and one of the culprits' teachers. [7]
Additionally, Gary Basaraba and Lara Grice portray Warren's parents, Jane McNeill portrays Spencer's mother, and Whitney Goin portrays Chas's mother. Wayne Duvall appears as Coach Bill Welton.
Filming began in Charlotte, North Carolina, in February 2017. Many of the scenes were filmed on campus at Davidson College. [8] [9] [10] [11] The title comes from Eric Borsuk's memoir, which derives its name from a passage in On the Origin of Species , one of the books stolen by the gang, about animals dwelling in the cave systems of Kentucky; [12] this quote is featured at the beginning of the film.
The film blurs elements of fiction and documentary, with the real-life versions of people depicted occasionally appearing alongside the actors in scripted scenes, and different versions of the same scene shown to reflect different accounts of events by the participants.
The score and themes were composed by Anne Nikitin. Other songs include: [13] [14]
It premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2018. [5] The film's distribution rights were purchased by The Orchard and MoviePass Ventures for US$3 million. It was released on June 1, 2018. [15] [16]
In its opening weekend the film made US$140,629 from four theaters (an average of US$35,157), finishing 24th. [17] According to their own reports, MoviePass members made up 25–35% of the film's opening weekend audience. Speaking about American Animals, as well as MoviePass Ventures' other film Gotti , one independent studio head told Deadline Hollywood : "It used to be in distribution, we'd all gossip whether a studio was buying tickets to their own movie to goose their opening. But in the case of MoviePass, there's no secret: They're literally buying the tickets to their own movie!" [18]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 215 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "American Animals tangles with a number of weighty themes, but never at the expense of delivering a queasily compelling true crime thriller." [19] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [20]
There was a controversy about Rotten Tomatoes audience approval for the film Gotti. Rotten Tomatoes staff issued a statement stating they didn't find any evidence of tampering and that "All of the ratings and reviews were left by active accounts." In June 2018, it was noted that 32 of the 54 written reviews were found to be from first-time reviewers on the site, who had also only left a review for Gotti itself, and 45 of the accounts were created the same month. Many of the accounts also wrote a review for the positively praised American Animals , which along with Gotti are the only films to be owned by MoviePass through its company MoviePass Ventures, which was responsible for 40% of tickets sold. Jim Vorel of Paste suggested this was done to try to prop up MoviePass's "unlimited movies" business model.
Layton won the Special Jury Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival [21] and won Best Screenplay from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. [22] At the British Independent Film Awards, American Animals won for Best Debut Screenwriter and Best Editing. [23] At the Montclair Film Festival, the film won the Junior Jury Award. [24] The film also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Editing. [25]
Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress, director, and producer.
Blake Alexander Jenner is an American actor. Jenner won the second season of Oxygen's The Glee Project and, as a result, portrayed Ryder Lynn on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. He has since had starring and supporting roles in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), The Edge of Seventeen (2016), American Animals (2018), and What/If (2019).
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan from a screenplay by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner. The film is the third installment in the Jumanji film series and a sequel to Jumanji (1995). It stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale. The story focuses on a group of teenagers who come across Jumanji, now transformed into a video game twenty-two years after the events of the 1995 film. They find themselves trapped inside the game as a set of adult avatars, seeking to complete a quest alongside another player who has been trapped since 1996.
Wind River is a 2017 neo-Western crime film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan. The film stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, and Graham Greene also star.
Ocean's Eight is a 2018 American heist comedy film directed by Gary Ross and written by Ross and Olivia Milch. The film is both a continuation of and a spin-off from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy and features an ensemble cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter. The film follows a group of women led by Debbie Ocean, the sister of Danny Ocean, who plan a sophisticated heist at the annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Den of Thieves is a 2018 American heist action film written, directed, and produced by Christian Gudegast. It stars Gerard Butler, Pablo Schreiber, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Max Holloway. In the film, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department clique look to stop a gang of thieves consisting of ex-MARSOC Marines that is planning to rob the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles.
Gotti is a 2018 American biographical crime film about New York City mobster John Gotti, directed by Kevin Connolly and written by Lem Dobbs and Leo Rossi. It stars John Travolta as Gotti, alongside his real-life wife Kelly Preston as Gotti's wife Victoria in her penultimate film.
Widows is a 2018 American neo-noir heist thriller film directed by Steve McQueen from a screenplay by Gillian Flynn and McQueen, based upon the 1983 British television series of the same name. The plot follows four Chicago women who attempt to steal $5,000,000 from the home of a prominent local politician in order to pay back a crime boss from whom $2,000,000 was stolen by the women's husbands before they were killed in a botched getaway attempt. A British-American co-production, the film stars Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki in the title roles alongside Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson in an ensemble supporting cast.
A Ghost Story is a 2017 American supernatural drama film written and directed by David Lowery and starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, with Will Oldham, Liz Cardenas Franke, Sonia Acevedo, and Rob Zabrecky in supporting roles. It is about a man who becomes a ghost and remains in the house he shared with his wife.
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot is a 2018 American comedy-drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and based upon the memoir of the same name by John Callahan. The cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara, and Jack Black, and follows a recently paralyzed alcoholic who finds a passion for drawing off-color newspaper cartoons.
Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 American surrealist black comedy film written and directed by Boots Riley, in his directorial debut. It stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer. The film follows a young black telemarketer who adopts a white accent to succeed at his job. Swept into a corporate conspiracy, he must choose between profit and joining his activist friends to organize labor.
Blindspotting is a 2018 American comedy-drama film written by, produced by and starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. Carlos López Estrada directs while Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Ethan Embry, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Utkarsh Ambudkar, and Wayne Knight also star. The plot follows a parolee with three days left on his sentence, only to have him witness a police shooting that threatens to ruin a lifelong friendship.
Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a 2018 American documentary film about the life and guiding philosophy of Fred Rogers, the host and creator of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, directed by Morgan Neville. The trailer for the film debuted on what would have been Rogers' 90th birthday, March 20, 2018.
Aneesh Chaganty is an American film director and screenwriter. He made his feature film directorial debut with the 2018 thriller Searching, for which he won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Annabelle Comes Home is a 2019 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Gary Dauberman, in his directorial debut, from a story by Dauberman and James Wan, who also served as producer with Peter Safran. It serves as a sequel to 2014's Annabelle and 2017's Annabelle: Creation, and as the sixth installment in The Conjuring Universe franchise. The film stars Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, and Katie Sarife, along with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, who reprise their roles as Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Topic Studios is an American film production company owned by First Look Media. The company is known for producing films Leave No Trace (2018), Luce (2019), The Climb (2019), The Mauritanian (2021). The company also produces television shows including Love Fraud (2020) and 100 Foot Wave (2021).
Kajillionaire is a 2020 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July. The film stars Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins as members of a petty criminal family whose relationship becomes frayed when a stranger played by Gina Rodriguez joins their schemes.
Cha Cha Real Smooth is a 2022 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Cooper Raiff. The plot centers on a 22-year-old college graduate (Raiff) who starts making money as a party starter while he also strikes up a relationship with a 32-year-old mother. The cast also includes Raúl Castillo, Odeya Rush, Evan Assante, Vanessa Burghardt, Brad Garrett, and Leslie Mann.
The Transylvania University book heist, also known as the Transy book heist, was the theft of rare books from the library of Transylvania University in December 2004.