American Animals

This is novice director/writer Bart Layton's first full length film - previous credits are mainly documentaries, and this was the downfall for this film.

The almost 2 hour length felt like 3 hours and really dragged out with the overly slow pace and unnecessary slo-mo scenes. Adding the real characters made this film feel like part documentary part film, which was annoying. It took away from the stories suspense and thrill as well as the great acting from the lead cast.

Not sure why Bart chose this route, but had he not done so, this film would have been much better. The actual characters should have been introduced towards the end, or as an extra featurette in the DVD release, and he should have just focused on the films story instead of breaking the suspense each time the real life characters popped up.