Kentucky, 2003 and the true story of four young college students who decide to steal rare books from the University Library.

Writer/Director Bart Layton is creating his own genre with American Animals. Part documentary, part film, he takes the real life subjects of his “based on a true story” film and inserts them into his drama. Not just as talking head documentary style scenes, but actually into the film itself with their acting counterparts. The visual flair and originality on show brought a huge smile to my face and later when he references and riffs on multiple heist films I was truly hooked. Layton’s only other feature film, The Imposter was a documentary about a man pretending to be someone he was not and it really zeroed in on why a family would let themselves be fooled. Here Layton is able to really dig into why a group of perfectly law abiding young men would commit a crime. At times it feels like a modern day Crime and Punishment.

Aside from the superb visuals, analysis of human behaviour and exciting storytelling ideas it features some stunning performances. Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) as art student Spencer is the absolute standout. Reminiscent of a young Dustin Hoffman he is great at showing someone so desperate for something important to happen to him he is prepared to force it. Evan Peters as Warren also shows his best performance since his career high in X-Men: Days if Future Past. Arguably the actual Spencer and Warren give great performances too. It’s interesting to see people spurred to commit a crime because they wanted “something” to happen to them be so comfortable in front of a camera for the film of that crime. Do they want to apologise or revel?

I was thoroughly impressed by how what could have been a generic heist film becomes something so much more.