Summary
Four college students plan a heist to steal rare books worth over twelve million dollars from their college library.
My Thoughts
This movie was a ton of fun. During my viewing, I kept thinking back to last year’s “Baby Driver”, another really stylish heist film; both films have great soundtracks, boast flashy directing, and have some innovative plot devises and story elements. Perhaps the coolest part of this movie, however, is the true story behind this film. The actual people who planned this heist, a couple of their parents, the librarian, and a teacher are all interviewed over the course of the film, and they tell their stories while the events unfold before our eyes. That seamless interweaving of real interviews and reenacted footage starring Hollywood stars is something that I haven’t really seen before, and it actually works surprisingly well throughout.
(SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
While attending Transylvania University, Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”) discovers that a special section of the library is home to extremely rare books including a first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and John James Audubon’s Birds of America. Spencer consults his friend Warren Lipka (Evan Peters, “X-Men: Apocalpyse”) and the two begin to plan a heist, thinking that their biggest hurdle will be getting passed the librarian (Ann Dowd, “Hereditary”). Eventually, the two believe that it will take more than themselves to pull off the heist, so they bring in two of their other friends: Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson, “Fear the Walking Dead”) and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner, “Everybody Wants Some!!”). As the heist approaches, each of them wrestles with what lines they will or wont cross.
(SPOILERS END)
I want to touch briefly on the documentary elements of this movie once more, because I truly think that is what elevates this movie above any other run-of-the-mill heist picture. First of all, in interviewing each of the real people about how they felt during certain times, it constructs a framing device that allows a lot more depth for all of the characters; especially towards the end, when they begin to realize what they’ve done has real-life consequences. Some of the real people get emotional about what they’ve done, or how they handled things. Another cool thing that arose from this is the way that Bart Layton handles the discrepancies between the stories. There is a scene when Warren goes to meet someone in the park; Spencer is sure that the man was young, but well-dressed wearing a purple or red scarf, but Warren says it was an old man with white hair and a beard. We see the encounter both ways; it’s a unique flair that I haven’t seen many other places (kind of a “Roshomon” effect, how everybody sees things differently).
Another thing I liked about this film was the writing and directing. This is the first film I’ve seen from Bart Layton, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for him in the future. His style of writing is flashy and fast paced, frenetic almost. He knows how to throw in a ton of humor to scenes that still require a lot of tension. I mean this movie is about stealing books from a library, but there scenes where I was holding my breath. Even if you know the story behind this story, there are tons of great twists and revelations throughout, and a surprising amount of emotion too.
Evan Peters steals the show as Warren; his character was dubbed the ringleader and he has plenty of charisma to pull it off. He’s wacky but can be ridiculously intense too. Barry Keoghan is pretty great too; he plays the straight man to Evan’s eccentric. While Evan’s character seems to struggle more with the question of if they can pull off the heist, Barry’s character struggles more with the whether they should be doing the heist at all. I thought Blake Jenner did a great job too; Eric Borsuk was fine, but I feel like he wasn’t given a ton to do compared to some of the other characters.
Really my only issue was it seemed to drag (very slightly) after the climax and before the finale. It was necessary to the story, because there were still things going on, but the film couldn’t quite maintain the momentum it had built up to. Still, that’s a very small qualm; overall a pretty fantastic flick.
Verdict
This is a really well made movie; it’s a ton of fun, and it’s based on a true story. Sadly, this isn’t a movie that got a wide release, so it might be hard to find. If you can’t find it in theaters, it’s absolutely worth seeking out once it hits streaming or shelves.
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