Film Review: AMERICAN ANIMALS

The Day of the Robbery: Four young men disguised as old men because, "Old people are invisible."

The best movies grab us by the collar during the opening credits and promise a brief escape from our own disturbing thoughts, serious problems or just plain boring lives. They can do this by teaching us something new, or scaring us out of our wits, or thrilling us with dazzling performances, often set to great music and woven into an interesting and complex plot. If that's your idea of a good movie experience, then American Animals should be at the top of your short list.

A semi-documentary that tells a true story, director Bart Layton flips back and forth between four grown men, today in their 30s, talking about a crime they planned and all but pulled off as college students at Kentucky's Transylvania University 14 years earlier. It was nothing violent like the 1924 Chicago kidnapping (and murder) of a 14-year-old boy by college students Leopold and Loeb, although their motive was similar: Let's shake up our dull lives and see if we can do this.

Instead, these young white men from decent, middle-class families -- a.k.a. "good boys" -- decided to steal a quartet of art books worth $12 million from the university's rare books collection, held under lock and key and guarded by a lone librarian.

The weeks spent carefully planning the heist allow us a look into the vastly different family lives of the two main characters, Warren (Evan Peters) and Spencer (Barry Keoghan), best friends who are both disappointed with the ordinariness of their lives and wistful over their all-but-lost dreams of being "someone special."  The acting by these two young men is nothing less than awesome, and while I rarely use that word, this time it's warranted. (Keoghan especially gives a heartbreaking and soulful performance, and his mournful face stays with you long after.) Eventually they enlist two other classmates to help pull off the "caper," which is how they innocently view it.

Great songs, old and new, accompany the antics of these four as they concoct their plan, not only of the theft but of the sale of the goods afterwards. Trips to New York City and the Netherlands seeking a fence for such high-stakes items add to the excitement of the venture. Despite the fact that they are essentially criminals, we root for them. But ultimately two strong messages surface: Be careful what you wish for, and crime doesn't pay. As Spencer's mother puts it after the fact, "It's like we woke up in a bad dream."