Americana

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.