Americana

"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.

A jarring struggles to settle on a tone between ironic quirkiness, character study and generic thriller action. Terrible structural and climax resolutions. Nothing memorable.

All in all it was subpar, lacking in coherence and character consistency, even when compared with the classic and or older movies of similar philosophical underpinnings.

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.

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.

I have seen a few contemporary westerns recently being "Eddington", "Honey Don't" and now "Americana".

I felt the movie started well. The story and elements that came together were interesting and engaging. It felt very Coen-esc in the sense that it's a situation that goes wrong and escalates out of proportion.

The scenery, soundtrack and performances were impressive. However when Act 3 begun it was the moment where "Americana" lost steam.

The subtly and patience that was executed in the first 2 acts evaporated when the film transitioned into an overly dramatic thriller.

I would have preferred are more grounded finale that focused on the well crafted themes in the beginning on the film.