Americana

Tony Tost gifts us a story with nostalgic roots of the American West, cowboys, Indian tribes, wide open spaces and our collective aspirations for better lives. He gathered some amazing Talent in this cast. Kudos Mister Tost on your directorial and writing for film debut.. Well done you.

Well done Miss Sweeney. Excellent portrayal Mister Hauser. And Halsey! Wow! And your first role out of the gate! I think we'll be seeing you each on many many more big screen appearances.

My advice to the cast and crew. Grab hold of Tony's shirt tail and keep hold of it. I think he's going to be on one heck of a ride as an authentic new voice in American film.

"Americana" is the story of a small town somewhere in South Dakota. We meet a large group of eccentric characters -- among them thug Dillon, his girlfriend Mandy and her little brother Cal (who claims he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull), stuttering waitress Penny Jo, and goofy but kind-hearted vet Lefty. A very valuable Native American artifact goes onto the black market and the chase for it becomes wild and violent involving the folk I just mentioned and many others...

"Americana" is clearly an attempt to emulate Tarantino. And for a while, it does a really good job. The stories and timelines all intertwine nicely. The characters are engaging and the performances are solid (especially Paul Walter Hauser and Sydney Sweeney, who make Lefty and Penny Jo a charming and quirky pairing). However, about 2/3 of the way through, writer/director Tony Tost seems to run out of idea so it's just "everybody shoots." It sort of peters out at the end, which is a shame, since a killer ending would have really elevated this flick.

Overall though, in a world of IP and huge budget messes, "Americana" is a breath of fresh air. Not perfect by any length, but still pretty entertaining and definitely worth checking out and supporting.

There are enough likeable characters here with own special quirks - country music and reincarnation obsessions, art theft and cultural appropriation - to make "Americana" a fun late summer journey to the movies. Sydney Sweeney before she was involved in any eugenics controversy, Halsey, and Paul Walter Hauser along with a great Zahn McClarnon all offer something interesting, sort of like "Nashville" and "Thunderheart" thrown in a blender. It along with "Eddington" give hope that a kind of revival of nineties indie cinema might be around the corner, or at least before the next Superman reboot.

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.