A group of young men attempt to rob not a bank, but a library archive of its precious books.
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆
Leave it to a group of amateur robbers who try to steal precious artwork in broad daylight. Which is the basis of this entire film. The film is a the true story of a group of four friends who attempted to rob a university library of its books (including an original edition of Charles Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’) in the oddest way. The four friends which consists of the cast of Barry Keoghan (Spencer Reinhard), Evan Peters (Warren Lipka), Blake Jenner (Chas Allen) and Jared Abrahamson (Eric Borsuk) are pulled in by Evan Peters’ character Warren into pulling off a heist to steal art books that are worth over ten million dollars, sell the books and live their best lives with the money.
Director and writer Bart Layton’s creativity with the film included the addition of the actual four friends who attempted to commit the robbery in real life, getting them to tell their thoughts around their decision to commit the robbery and how it actually turned out for them once they were caught. Layton’s use of the real Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Chas Allen and Eric Borsuk highlights the different themes of toxic masculinity and the strength of peer pressure shown throughout the film that surround a bunch of young men (some of whom come from wealthy families) who feel the goal of capitalism beyond their reach of their Caucasian hands.
Layton manages to successfully separate this true-life film from other biographical films with the extended inclusion of the four friends, as well as making the main narrative of the film being on Spencer Reinhard and his journey as a freshman at the University of Transylvania (the same university that holds the precious art books), through his attempt at joining fraternities and as the mastermind behind stealing the book from the library’s archives, with some of the books dating back to the 17th century, for reasons that are unclear to Reinhard.
Layton’s entry into the world of fictional film-making from his known career as a documentary director through American Animals is an excellent combination of his skill, through telling the story of one of the most bizarre heists in American history from the narrative and the personal perspective. Unfortunately the robbery operation does get botched on the day after all of the meticulous planning done, and the four men are eventually caught by officials, but the film makes for a very suspenseful dramedy created by director Bart Layton and is worth watching.
Check out the trailer below:
- Love, light and blessings
Mpho xx.
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