Americana

For a heist movie, this seems to move real slow. Character development are important but film maker seem to not care about run time. If you like Halsey, she makes an appearance early for a short time then disappears until much later then you get a lot of. This film conceptually sound good but it is only (small) part heist. Not even half way through I've already lost interest. I stuck it out and luckily the kid and ghost face aka Henry scene kept me a little invested how the movie progresses. In my opinion the character Henry Alvin made this film tolerable. Halsey did good (I think this is her film debut) acting out her parts. The film is mostly drama and I realized this after much given thought. The end is perfect as it didn't fall into the trappings of a feel good film - the reincarnation nonsense was resoundingly rejected by the true adult in this film. The ending makes perfect sense also because Halsey's character finally realizes true wealth. What would make this film score higher than my six out of ten rating is if they had less of that excruciatingly slow scenes (yes, multiple) with hefty lefty cowboy and Sydney's character.

Sydney Sweeney is a Rising Star indeed as she continues to impress in movies like Reality and TV Series Euphoria. She has wide range of emotioons as she immefrses herself into the character she is playing. Americana is a modern day Wetern drama action kind of movie and the plot revolves around a rare Lakota Ghost Shirt which falls onto the black market in a small South Dakota town which intrertwines the lives of several popel involved violently. This sets in motio a chain of events that affects several people seeking fortune and liberty and some are trying to recover it to its proper tribal home. Plot has good flow and cinematography is decent. It has enough to keep you engaged till the end. Overall a good watch on a weekend.

I'm surprised by how enjoyable this movie was.

Screenwriter and director Tony Tost (also a poet) did a fantastic job crafting a story that does feel like poetry in motion.

But to label this movie a neo-western crime drama is, I think, mis-categorizing it and selling it short. It's not a western, despite being set in South Dakota and many characters do wear cowboy hats. And it's not really a crime drama though there is several crimes committed.

I would say "Americana" is more like a day dream of one of the characters - perhaps Sidney Sweeny's Penny Jo or maybe Halsey's Mandy Starr. Or maybe even the little kid. Who knows.

All the actors in this production were good. Sidney Sweeny definitely was very good in a low-key away, and not being exploited sexually for her body.

All in all, if you enjoy good story-telling, give this movie a chance.

AMERICANA is not a disaster. In fact, it's maybe 3/4ths of a very good movie. This neo-Western crime caper has a lot to say both about America's violent past and its fractious, identity politics poisoned present, but it should have taken the time to develop those ideas more fully.

Don't be fooled by Sydney Sweeney's top billing-she's probably the third or even fourth lead. She's fine enough, though her character is underwritten and stuck with a character trait that probably seemed better on the page than how it plays on screen. Halsey is fierce and along with Zahn Mcclarnon probably gives the movie's best performance.

AMERICANA looks and feels like an early Coen Brothers film or something Tarantino might have tried before Pulp Fiction, but it lacks the style, pace and wit that either of those filmmakers would bring to the material. But you could do worse movie-wise these days and if you go in open minded, you might just come away liking this one.

Americana (2025) is a crime thriller movie written and directed by Tony Tost in his directorial debut. This is a movie I chose to watch because of who was in the cast and I can say that the movie was pretty good.

Positives for Americana (2025): I like the story of having a set of eccentric characters going after an item that causes a lot of chaos in South Dakota. The ensemble cast is great and you have Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Simon Rex, Eric Dane and Zahn McClarnon. They play their characters very well and are crazy enough to get me invest in the story. I really enjoyed the relationship between the characters and how they interact with one another. I also like the way how the movie is told in these different chapters. And finally, the third act of this movie is really insane and entertaining.

Negatives for Americana (2025): It definitely feels like Tony Tost was trying to do his version of a Quentin Tarantino movie, but he isn't Tarantino and the movie feels like it has no identity. There are too many characters to follow and they are all kinds of weird with their personalities, despite being acted very well by the cast. I also don't understand why these people are after this one item and it was just really dumb. And finally, the third act feels like Tony Tost had all of these ideas in his head and he shoved them into this one movie and none of them are developed enough for me to care.

Overall, Americana (2025) was a good directorial debut for Tony Tost and I am looking forward to see what he does next.