AMERICAN ANIMALS

Cert Running time

Wildly ambitious and superbly crafted, this intriguing, tense and funny real-life heist thriller is a light-fingered and dexterous modern day morality tale.

In 2004, four misfit college students infamously stole rare books worth millions from a university library, but they turned out to be astonishingly idiotic and incompetent amateurs in the art of thieving.

Actors recreate the crime using typical Hollywood storytelling conventions, such as the recruiting of the specialist members of the gang and meticulous planning scenes.

Plus, there are many nods and winks to the likes of Ocean’s 11, which the likeable conspirators watch to discover how to commit the perfect robbery.

However, interrupting at regular intervals in confessional documentary style are the actual gang members. Now older and somewhat wiser, they question each other’s account of events, turning this extremely entertainingly thriller into a commentary on the glamorisation of on-screen violence and criminal behaviour, with the script emphasising that there is no such thing as consequence-free crime.

Catch these American animals if you can.