American Criminals

When I saw this on itunes, I bought it straight away. I have been reading about this tragic case for many years, and also watched many documentaries. Hence, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie.

Well, I don't even think I can call it a movie. It's insulting to cinematic masterpieces like Barb Wire, Cats and Madame Web.

Everything about this awful piece of garbage is atrocious. There is no acting, people are just reading from a piece of paper. The "actors" wear modern clothes, they have modern hairstyles, the sound is horrible, and the story has no root in reality. Avoid at all cost.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and the storytelling ability of director, Aaron Warr. What a phenomenal job by the director, producers, cast and crew and everyone who took part in this production!

I would recommend this and I appreciate that it is portrayed in such a way that viewers are able to follow the storyline from each characters perspective.

This movie drew me into the account of Bobby Franks. I loved the way it skipped around to tell the entire story. Aaron Warr did an incredible job of telling the this true historical tale by going in depth where he needed to. I felt really engaged the entire time. I purchased the movie on iTunes and will show it to my family and friends every chance I get so I can watch it again!

I should have some sympathy because this was clearly shot with no money and inexperienced actors, but it's not worth your time. The story is so slow and boring, the audio and editing are awful, the dialogue clunky and unbelievable. Also the costumes are so noticeably cheap and not period accurate. I sympathize, it's hard to shoot a historical movie on a low budget, but everything looked so cheap.

I think my biggest problem though was I'm not sure what message was the director trying to tell me, it felt aimless. I don't know much about the case it's based on, but what's the point of just showing these scenes of the killers talking and the lawyers talking, it just didn't felt like it built to anything.

Amazing story, told from the perspective of one of the killers, based on his actual book written from prison, but not glamorously. Many historic and societal themes, starting with the Leopold and Loeb case as the central story. Others include infamous lawyer Clarence Darrow in his prime, LGBTQ+ themes, racial and economic disparity and tensions in Chicago at the time (and rest of the country), among others. First time the phrase "crime of the century " was used to describe this unspeakable killing of a young boy for the thrill of it. Production quality and acting is very good, easy to be pulled into the story, which is important with any film. Well done!