An ensemble cast of peculiar characters all struggling to possess a valuable native American artifact. They mostly have zero experience in the criminal side of society and are laughably bad trying to learn.
The story is told in chapters, Tarantino style. Unlike Tarantino, all but one of the chapters are told in linear order, so apart from the change of character the chapters are meaningless.
Another difference from Tarantino is that the characters are left somewhat cartoonish. Not 2 dimensional, but not deeply developed either. It would be easy to add 30 minutes delving into the characters backstory and getting us more invested in their story arc. But that would get gritty and unpleasant in a way this movie doesn't want. In particular with the father character and those at his house.
I had not looked at the body of work for writer, director Tony Tost. But looking now I see Pokerface, The Terror, and a host of other good shows. He's made another winner here. There's also mention of a Forrest Whitaker movie in the dialogue, I need to look that up.
Best performances go to Zahn McClarnon, Gavin Maddox Bergmen, and Sydney Sweeney, in that order. Zahn and Gavin get a good amount of screen time together and those are some of the best moments in the movie.
I'm between giving this a 7 or 8. I will go with 8 because it appears the recent Jean ad featuring Ms Sweeney has provoked some people into dumping 1 star reviews here. My biggest complaint would be the title, which seems to suggest the movie will reflect core American values. It doesn't. It is set in the heartland (south dakota) and lovingly filmed in and around albuquerque, but that alone doesn't warrant a title of that significance.
