Director
Bart Layton
Leading Actors/Actresses
Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd
Genre
Crime Thriller, Biopic
Language
English
Awards
2018 British Independent Film Award for Best Debut Screenwriter and Best Editing
Date of Release
June 1st, 2018
Producer
Derrin Schlesinger, Katherine Butler, Dimitri Doganis, Mary Jane Skalski
Setting and Context
Set in 2004 in Lexington, Kentucky
Narrator and Point of View
Told from the perspective of the main characters as unreliable narrators.
Tone and Mood
Tongue-in-cheek, Naïve, Tense, Serious
Protagonist and Antagonist
Warren Lipka, Spencer Reinhard, Chas Allen III, and Eric Borsuk are both the protagonists and the antagonists in the film.
Major Conflict
The four students hope to make quick money by stealing John James Audubon’s Birds of America since it is located in a mildly secured facility. Their idealism and misplaced confidence lead them to commit a crime that takes in victims and has grave consequences.
Climax
The climax occurs when their plan gets botched and in the process tase the librarian, turning their burglary into a violent crime.
Foreshadowing
The opening scene shows the perpetrators preparing their disguises which foreshadow the day and facts of their eventual heist.
Understatement
Warren Lipka understates the possible consequences of their actions since he views the endeavor as a path towards being extraordinary.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
The film blurs the line between truth and fiction as it incorporates the real-life participants through interviews in the dramatic reconstruction.
Allusions
As a true story, the film references the events towards stealing the first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America that was housed by the University of Kentucky.
Paradox
Though the students insist on the ease of stealing the picture book, they encounter many obstacles that work against them and lead to their arrest
Parallelism
The film parallels the narration of the four characters from each of their perspective on the chain of events. Though they might be unreliable narrators each of their point of views blend and work to create the full picture.
