American Animals

(out of 4) Starring Barry Keoghan, Evan Peters, Jared Abrahamson, Blake Jenner, Ann Dowd and Udo Kier. Written and directed by Bart Layton. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 117 minutes. 14A The premise of writer/director Bart Layton’s American Ani

mals seems like something out a 1980s comedy, perhaps a forgotten sequel to Ferris Bueller’s

Day Off. Not so much. Four college kids with too much time on their hands plot to steal a prized first edition of Audubon’s The Birds of America and other valuables from the library of their school, Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. Smart/dumb bros Spencer (Barry Keoghan), Warren (Evan Peters), Eric (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas (Blake Jenner) cockily assume it will be the perfect crime. They just have to get past one librarian, played by Ann Dowd (who might have given them pause if they’d seen her in Hereditary or The Handmaid’s Tale).

What’s the motivation for this fact-based heist? Seems the lads want more out of life.

I felt the same way about the movie. It hits the usual genre beats, and plays a predictable rock soundtrack as it lurches between comedy and drama, but neither the story nor the characters really mesh.

Layton has the real perps pop up throughout as an older, wiser Greek chorus. This proves to be more of a distraction than a revelation. PH