The Film4 Summer Screen season ends on a high note with the UK premiere of American Animals, a true-crime tale filled with high tension, black humour and some of the finest young actors around.
A group of four students come together in classic heist movie fashion (think Reservoir Dogs, because that's what they do) to steal some of the world's rarest books from the special collections room of their college library. Quite why they decided to do this, or why they these juvenile amateur criminals thought they were capable of pulling it off, are just some of the deeper currents that run through this irrepressible thriller that may ostensibly conform to crime film conventions but has a way of telling a story that is very much all its own.
What really gives the action its zest and freshness are the performances from the four young leads – mischievous looking star Evan Peters (X-Men, American Horror Story), the wonderful Irish actor Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Blake Jenner (Supergirl, The Edge of Seventeen) and Jared Abrahamson.
Each member of the group is distinctive in their own right, but the best scenes are when they come together as a perfectly imperfect gang of thieves. What you see on-screen may or may not be true, but one thing is for sure - the Film4 Summer Screen Closing Night Premiere is a modern masterpiece.
At Somerset House on the Strand on 22 August 2018, book your American Animals tickets today!
Please note: Certificate TBC.
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