American Animals
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.,At the end of the movie, when it is explaining what each character is up to now, the text says that Charles Allen II is "writing a book on prison workout regimes." Some people regard this as a mistake and think the word should be "regimens". However, all major dictionaries recognize the use of "regime" to mean "regimen".,Warren Lipka: You're taught your entire life that what you do matters and that you're special. And that, there are things you can point towards that would... which'll show that you're special, that show you're different, when, in all reality, those things... don't matter. And you're not special.,Preceding the opening credits is this quote: "We must suppose that American animals...slowly migrated by successive generations from the outer world into the deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves." Attribution is to Charles Darwin, from his seminal work, "On the Origin of Species.",Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Amazing Movies You Missed This Spring (2018),Sound of da Police
Written by Showbiz (as Rodney Lemay), KRS-One (as Lawrence Parker), Eric Burdon, Chas Chandler (as Bryan Chandler), Alan Lomax
Performed by KRS-One
Published by Universal Music Publishing Ltd.
Used by kind permission of Carlin Music Corp.
By permission of Concord Music Publishing,Without knowing anything about the film beyond some structural elements I came into the film and was surprised by how quickly I was engaged by it. The mix of documentary footage and reenactment is not new or special, but it is effective in the early stages of this film of allowing the viewer to catch-up with the people quickly, while part of the reenactment builds tension well early on. As the film goes on, the documentary side steps into the background, but the reenactment side is more than up to the task. It links well to the real footage, adding weight, and the performances are convincing as young men in this situation.

The tension surprised me - particularly as I knew this was part documentary, so I had not expected it to be as good a drama as it was. It perhaps is a bit functional and event driven, but this works well, and the conclusion suggests that motivations and feelings were not readily available. It is slickly filmed with good use of music, and a control of tone that draws in cool sequences with real life panic and fumbling. It doesn't quite satisfy in terms of the ending, with its lack of full answers and exploration, but it is engaging, well-made, and enjoyable in several different ways.,