American Animals
Short description
In 2004, two friends attending a university in Lexington, Kentucky, grow restless with ordinary student life and start looking for something that would set them apart. One of them learns that the school library holds rare volumes worth a great deal of money, and the pair recruit two more young men to help them take the books. Drawing on what they have seen in heist films, the four plan the theft, then try to work out how to sell material that is far too recognizable to move easily. The scheme builds toward a point they cannot undo, and the gap between their cinematic expectations and what actually happens keeps widening.
Bart Layton directs and wrote the screenplay, following his earlier film The Imposter. Evan Peters plays Warren Lipka and Barry Keoghan plays Spencer Reinhard, with Blake Jenner and Jared Abrahamson as their accomplices; Ann Dowd and Gary Basaraba also appear. The film mixes dramatized scenes with documentary material involving the real participants, and it was made for about 3 million dollars, ultimately taking in a similar amount worldwide.
On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from 53,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 out of 10 from 1,248 votes. A critics' rating of 7.6 out of 10 from 212 reviews places it somewhat above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- During filming, the actors were not allowed to meet or communicate with the real-life counterparts of their characters, so as not to subconsciously sympathize with them or portray them in a certain light.
- Director Bart Layton turned to Warren Lipka and the others while they were still serving their sentences for the crime, and this film was the result of their collaboration.
- The film was shot in the library of a private university in North Carolina during spring break in 2017. Library staff continued to work as if nothing was happening amidst the unimaginable chaos that accompanies any film shoot. Some library staff were offered the chance to audition for minor roles, and one of them was even approved, but ultimately no staff members appeared in the film so as not to distract them from their duties. If you look closely at the scenes in the library, you can see that the blinds are closed. It was behind these closed blinds that the library staff continued their work.
- The film is based on real events – the theft of a priceless volume from the library of a private university in Transylvania, Lexington, Kentucky, USA, by students. The film was shot in the state of North Carolina.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
