Parents' Guide to American Animals

For this true-crime movie, writer/director Bart Layton attempts a new angle and succeeds. American Animals is narrated by the heist's actual participants, and it's brilliantly edited, bringing fascinating layers to the proceedings. Layton's previous movie, the documentary The Imposter, asked pointed questions about perception, acceptance, and truth, and he continues with those themes here (albeit in a more crowd-pleasing way). Not only does American Animals allow for its interviewees to sometimes contradict one another, it occasionally drops them right into the action along with the actors who are playing them to further underline possible inconsistencies in memory and storytelling. (The movie claims that it's not "based on" a true story; it is a true story.)

Even better are the imagined victories, the scenes that feel just like traditional heist movies, but with an outsider's knowledge; the scenes play against the characters' knowledge and the viewers' knowledge in fascinatingly different ways. American Animals probably wouldn't have worked if not for the fine performances, especially by the nuanced, vulnerable Keoghan (who was disturbingly good in The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and Ann Dowd, who brings great fear and hurt to her role as librarian Betty Jean Gooch (the real Ms. Gooch also appears as herself). The film eventually captures the horrible weight of committing a crime. In this way, American Animals isn't just highly entertaining, but it also provides food for thought.