Review: Echo Boomers

Nice guy art major Patrick Schwarzenegger arrives in Chicago to hook up with his cousin Gilles Geary, who offers him a job that plays into his particular skill set. In an unorthodox way. You see, Geary runs with a crew of college-educated millennials (including Hayley Law and Alex Pettyfer) who have struggled to do anything with their education, and now finance themselves by stealing from rich folk. Geary figures Schwarzenegger’s art knowledge will help them focus their attention on valuable art pieces. At first it’s all fun and games, but eventually things get riskier and more dangerous. Michael Shannon plays their no-bullshit ‘fence’, Lesley Ann Warren is a reporter.

 

“American Animals” done sorta right. This 2020 flick from writer/director Seth Savoy (his debut feature-length film) and his co-writers Jason Miller (another shorts guy) and Kevin Bernhardt (“Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying”, “Elephant White”) give us another truth-based account of lazy youngsters who try to get a leg up in life by turning to crime. It frustratingly doesn’t have anything fresh to say, but it’s certainly better than most of these kinds of stories, including “Billionaire Boys Club”. So I guess it’s worth a soft recommendation simply for being better than I expected it to be and better than several others of its type.

 

Much as I didn’t agree with what these characters were doing or why they were doing it, the filmmakers at least make the rationale behind the crimes sound believably enticing to some idiots out there potentially. So the filmmakers make this seem plausible, and don’t just rely on the fact that it really did happen. Some of the performances are pretty good too, including Michael Shannon, Gilles Geary, and even Patrick Schwarzenegger is effective as essentially the most appealing character of a fairly disreputable bunch. He’s got the innocent-eyed Paul Walker-esque thing down pat. It’s a shame that the talented Lesley Ann Warren is so poorly wasted in a nothing role, though.

 

A well-made film with an unfortunately well-worn trajectory. It’s well-done and will get a recommendation from me, but you do wish it weren’t so familiar. Being based on a true story is no excuse. Michael Shannon and Gilles Geary are excellent, Patrick Schwarzenegger is well-cast.

 

Rating: B-

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