For three days fromMarch 9-11, 2018, The “Supper Suite” has taken over Austin lounge Basecamp,located at 120 West. 5thStreet and hosted cast cocktail receptions for six official SXSW film selections:American Animals,Support the Girls,Sadie,Outside In,The Unicorn, andYou Can Choose Your Own Family.
Since these are private parties, I promised to share plenty of pictures and info from the party and up first isAmerican Animals. If you’re not familiar with the film, the film chronicles the real-life heist of precious rare books from Transylvania University in 2004 Kentucky, pulled off by a quartet of mostly well-off college students.
As Adam Chitwood wrote inhis Sundance review:
The heist genre is one that’s been done to death, but withAmerican Animals, filmmakerBart Laytonmanages to pull off something wholly unique. Best known as the director behind the wildly entertaining documentaryThe Imposter, Layton brings his non-fiction background with him to his first narrative feature film, interlacing the movie’s fictional portrayal of events with interviews with the real-life subjects. The effect is engaging, offering a self-reflection not often seen in crime films, the cast is terrific and Layton announces himself as a filmmaker to watch.
WhenAmerican Animalsbegins, text appears on the screen stating “This Is Not Based on a True Story,” but after a few seconds the “Not Based on” drops out, and we’re left with “This Is a True Story.” The central mastermind duo behind the heist is Spencer (Barry Keoghan), a talented young art student, and his adrenaline-fueled troublemaking best friend Warren (Evan Peters). First pitched as something of a joke, the two begin to meticulously plan a heist of a couple of rare books kept in a secure library on the Transylvania University campus. Spencer is spurred by the notion that all great artists had to endure some kind of hardship to become great, and he’s lived a perfectly nice family life. Warren, meanwhile, is a bit of a free spirit, spurred to act mostly out of the desire to see if they could actually pull this off.
Since Movie Pass and The Orchard picked up distribution rights toAmerican AnimalsI’m sure you’ll be seeing it in theaters later this year. I caught it at Sundance and it’s well worth your time. Until then, check out a ton of pics from the party and a few highlights below.
