Museo

The year of films about real-life art heists rolls on with Museo, a seriocomic look at the 1985 looting of Mexico City’s National Anthropology Museum.

The less stylistic cousin of this summer’s American Animals features Gael García Bernal as Juan, a well-off veterinary student in arrested development who recruits his classmate Wilson (Leonardo Ortizgris) for a shot at riches because — well, other than the thrill of the job and a shot at independence, their motives aren’t exactly clear, and that’s mostly OK.

In chronicling their escapades, director/co-writer Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Scorsese-like touches of long zoom-ins and other nifty camerawork give way to more conventional but consistently clean filmmaking that keeps the robbery and the sophisticated means to extract the artifacts a thrilling exercise.

Evolving into more of a character study as the friends deal with the fallout from their actions, Museo remains intriguing as despair sets in, though the absence of visual flair nonetheless tempers its appeal.

Grade: B. Not rated, but with adult content, language and nudity. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre

(Photo: Vitagraph Films)