In Bart Layton’s clever documentary/re-enactment mashup American Animals, four college kids plan a major art heist. The film opens with the title words THIS IS NOT BASED ON A TRUE STORY morphing into THIS IS A TRUE STORY. Indeed, in 2003, four college kids really did target $12 million in rare Audubon and Darwin books at the Transylvania University library in Lexington, Kentucky.
The story follows the classic arc of a heist movie -the intricate planning, the assembling of a team and, finally, the Big Day. Because the heist is so preposterous (and because these guys are smoking a lot of weed while planning it), the whole thing is pretty funny.
Layton has his cake and eats it, too. He has actors re-enact the real events. And he has the real participants commenting as talking heads. (With the retrospect of fifteen years, none of the participants now thinks that the heist was a good idea.)
I was especially eager to see American Animals because director Bart Layton also made The Imposter, one of the most jaw-dropping documentaries I have seen. American Animals is not as good as the unforgettable The Imposter, but funnier and more inventive – and damn entertaining.
I saw American Animals at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM). It opens in the Bay Area this weekend.