Movies American Animals is a clever new kind of true-crime thriller: EW review By Leah Greenblatt Leah Greenblatt Leah Greenblatt is the former critic at large for movies, books, music, and theater at Entertainment Weekly. She left EW in 2023. EW's editorial guidelines Published on May 24, 2018 04:44PM EDT Photo: The Orchard A movie seemingly custom-made for the era of alternative facts, American Animals feels like a new kind of true-crime thriller: one that shamelessly rewrites its truths in real time as it goes. Inspired by the so-called Transy Book Heist, Animals tells the story of Spencer Reinhard (played here by both Dunkirk’s Barry Keoghan and Reinhard himself), a college kid marking time at Kentucky’s Transylvania University, and his friend Warren Lipka (Evan Peters, also splitting with the actual Lipka). A wild-haired man-child with a perpetual joint in his mouth and a shaky T. rex tattooed on his bicep, Warren is up for anything, including Spencer’s idle idea to rob the college’s collection of premium rare books — particularly its crown jewel, John James Audubon’s elaborately illustrated Birds of America. How hard could it be to knock out a librarian, grab the goods, and fence them on the black market? Well, first they need to learn what a fence is. But soon the pair are giddy with homework: mapping out exit routes, planning disguises, studying a stack of helpful DVDs (Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job) — and recruiting two new co-conspirators, Eric (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas (Blake Jenner). Writer-director Bart Layton’s approach is half forensic, half surreal, a docudrama bedazzled by fourth-wall breaks and winking what-ifs. It’s bravura look-at-me filmmaking, and undeniably fun. But as the Reservoir Dogs swagger inevitably yields to reality, he strikes a deeper chord, too: These boys may be callow and foolish and terrible at grand larceny, but they aren’t animals. They’re misguided believers in another kind of American dream — the myth of the cool-eyed outlaw who takes what he wants, and always walks away clean. B+