The ‘American Animals’ Opening Scene Gets Ready For A Heist
American Animalsfocuses on one of the strangest art heists in history. A group of college kids from wealthy backgrounds banded together to steal a collection of rare art books. Things didn’t go as planned. Now, you may watch theAmerican Animalsopening scene below, featuring the characters preparing for their big heist.
American Animals Opening Scene
I’ve seenAmerican Animals, and I think the trailers are doing the movie a disservice. Trailers make this movie look like your standard heist movie with darkly comedic undertones. But that’s not whatAmerican Animalsis. Instead, it’s more akin toThe Social Networkmeets Errol Morris’The Thin Blue Line.Bart Layton, who directed the fascinating documentaryThe Imposter, brings his documentary sensibilities to this film. The result is a movie that blends fact with fiction – we see actors playing real-life figures, and then we see the real-life figures themselves, offering insight into whatreallyhappened.
The end result is fascinating, and one of my favorite movies of the year so far. This opening scene gives you a good indication of what the film is actually like: the stylish narrative side of the movie, intercut with the documentary elements of real people talking directly to the camera. Here, we watch as the people involved with the heist – played byBarry Keoghan,Evan Peters,Jared Abrahamson, andBlake Jenner– prepare for their big heist. The plan is to disguise themselves as old men and steal a collection of rare art books from a college campus library.
If the not-so-great marketing hasn’t inspired you to catch this flick, I urge you to give it a chance. It’s much smarter, and much more disturbing, than it’s being sold as. This is ultimately a portrait of disaffected youth, and the message the film is sending will leave you unsettled.
