Popular reviews

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  Review by Sean Baker 17

  Cool film. Easily one of the best US films of the year. Love the hybrid docu/fiction nature of the film. Lots to analyze here... because basically this is a documentary with cinematic reenactments.

  From imdb: During filming the actors were not allowed to meet their real life counterparts because the director feared they would sympathise and/or play them in a certain light.

  and

  The director originally approached Warren and the others about the film while they were still incarcerated for the crime. The resulting relationship that developed culminated in the final film, after they were released.

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★ 4

  what was working so well as a comedy became dark and realistic FAST, but for the most part i think the genre shift is effective. my rating for this is probably gonna go up or down with some reflection, only time will tell

  also, the best line in the movie, in reference to reservoir dogs: “it’s probably my least favorite tarantino film”

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 12

  Honestly shocked at how many of my Letterboxd friends did not seem to like this movie! I reeeeeeally enjoyed it. It’s stylish, tense, upsetting, and SO well-acted– Evan Peters, Blake Jenner, and Barry Keoghan were outstanding. It even acts as it’s own documentary, which seemed ridiculous at first but quickly justified itself in a way that I loved. I might have qualms with the final minutes of the movie, but overall I can’t complain too much. I dug it. It’s like Crime, Tonya.
  
  
  (Also, I am now 2 for 2 this week at getting mad at theatergoers who keep laughing during particularly tense and upsetting scenes of Ann Dowd movies 😤)

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  Review by lauren ★★★½

  the killing of a sacred heist

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  Review by Kara ★★★★★ 1

  fellas is it gay to take ur bro on a trip to nyc to meet a person that may or may not exist for valentine's day??

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  Review by Sarah ★★★★½ 5

  like a millennial Ocean’s Eleven
  like a male Thoroughbreds
  like a dumb Social Network

  like one of the wildest pieces of film I’ve ever seen. I’m floored

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  Review by Houston Coley ★★★★½ 9

  It’s a little degrading to call this a “heist movie” when it’s so much more than that, but bro, this is better than every Oceans film combined.

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★½ 8

  You’ve seen too many movies.” It’s a line that’s almost as old as the movies themselves. And yet, in reality, very few people have actually seen too many movies (and most of those people are film critics). More often than not, the trouble is that someone hasn’t seen enough movies. Case in point: Bart Layton’s “American Animals.”

  Had the film-loving twentysomethings at the heart of this real-life heist story bothered to watch the “Rififi” DVD they rent from their local Blockbuster, perhaps they would have known how these stories usually end (though a deep knowledge of “Reservoir Dogs” doesn’t seem to faze them). Had any of them taken the time to revisit “Fight Club” (because there’s no way these kids haven’t seen “Fight Club”), perhaps they wouldn’t have needed to throw their lives away in order to make peace with the notion that they’re not as special as their mothers led them to believe.

  READ THE FULL REVIEW ON INDIEWIRE

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  Review by Siena 🌞 ★★★★ 4

  When Evan Peters got out of the tub 10th grade me who watched and rewatched Murder House religiously was shaking

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  Review by Jaxi ★★★★★ 1

  why isn't coming of age heist film a more popular genre

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  Review by Jacob ★★★★½ 3

  What I expected to be a fun heist movie proved to be a richly complicated work of docu-fiction, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. American Animals is one of the most unique films of the year, effectively weaving documentary and narrative fiction into one masterful movie about the consequences of reckless youth.

  The format here will remind many viewers of last year’s I, Tonya, but instead of a mere imitation of self-analysis, we’re given this interactive structure that allows us to connect with the characters in a radical way. Some of best moments here are seen in quick flashes, wordless moments of the interviews where the subjects shift in their seats and come to personal realizations. When these boys…

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  Review by issy 🥝 ★★★★ 3

  michael caine: I am sick of only seeing young people committing crimes on my screen. I want to make many, many movies about old people in crime! I will cast elderly actors only as the protagonists, and finally us old timers will show the world what we’re made of! 

  the college kids dressed up like old men in american animals (2018), driving past michael caine on the way back from their heist: hey old bitch

  michael caine: MOTHERFUCKERS