Plot: A gallery of dynamic characters clash over the possession of a rare Native American artifact in this wildly entertaining modern-day western. After the artifact falls onto the black market, a shy waitress with big dreams teams up with a lovelorn military veteran to gain possession of it, putting them in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal working on behalf of a Western antiquities dealer. Bloodshed ensues when others join the battle, including the leader of an indigenous group and a desperate woman fleeing her mysterious past.
Review: There are few things as satisfying as a good ensemble cast. When you get a team of solid actors working together on a project that takes classic genre elements and delivers a twist, few things are as enjoyable. Americana, the feature directorial debut from Tony Tost, showrunner of Poker Face and creator of Damnation, takes the tropes of the western genre and combines them with the non-linear storytelling of Quentin Tarantino’s films, with the sensibility of The Coen Brothers. Led by solid performances from Sydney Sweeney and Halsey, Americana is a well-crafted thriller that defies the familiar aspects of the films that inspired it to create an enjoyable story that is entertaining and of higher quality than most of the movies released during the closing weeks of the summer season.
Divided into chapters, Americana follows a group of South Dakota residents vying for a valuable ghost shirt, a tribal artifact of the Lakota people, that has been exchanging hands between private collectors. When the less-than-legal dealings of Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex) lead to murders, the ghost shirt begins exchanging hands through various factions. There is Dillon MacIntosh (Eric Dane), the abusive boyfriend of Mandy Starr (Halsey), and her younger brother Cal (Gavin Lee Maddox). We also have stammering waitress Penny Jo Poplin (Sydney Sweeney) and lovestruck veteran Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser), as well as indigenous revolutionary leader Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), all of whom want the ghost shirt for their reasons. Add into that a religious cult, the reincarnated spirit of Sitting Bull, and country music, and you have a recipe for an off-kilter thriller with just enough strangeness that sets it apart from the norm.
Initially released in 2023 at SXSW, Americana has been floating around small screenings and festivals, with Lionsgate finally giving it a wide release this weekend. Usually, August tends to be a dumping ground for mediocre fare, but Americana is a welcome bit of entertainment. The poster and marketing for Americana are focused on Sydney Sweeney, and for good reason. Despite some recent controversy surrounding a marketing campaign she is involved in, Americana is another distinct turn from Sweeney as she broadens her resume. Playing Penny, a waitress with a heavy stutter who overhears a plan for stealing the ghost shirt, Sweeney is a key player in the cast but has just about as much screen time as everyone else. Sweeney has good chemistry with Paul Walter Hauser, who, luckily, is not relegated to playing another variation of the schlubby loser he has mastered in many other roles. Hauser makes Lefty a likable hero, but one who is not the central figure but rather a piece of a larger overall puzzle.
While Americana boasts great yet small turns from Eric Dane, Simon Rex, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Toby Huss, the standouts are Halsey and Zahn McClarnon. Halsey turned in a memorable performance in Ti West’s MaXXXine, but Mandy Starr is a more substantial turn. Halsey gives Mandy a complex challenge of playing a woman stuck in an unhealthy relationship with the lingering trauma of her unconventional childhood, while supporting young Cal, who has his own set of issues. Halsey turns what could have been a one-note character into an impressive performance, including several scenes that hinge on her delivering without uttering a line of dialogue. On the opposite side, Zahn McClarnon has appeared in numerous projects over the last decade, including Fargo, Westworld, Dark Winds, Hawkeye, Echo, and Doctor Sleep, and once again impresses as a modern revolutionary who knows the films of Jim Jarmusch as much as he does the heritage of his people. Halsey and McClarnon stand out in an impressive cast from top to bottom.
Writer and director Tony Tost has long proclaimed his inspiration from filmmakers like the aforementioned Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, James Mangold, and more. Those influences show through Americana as well as his recent work as a showrunner on Rian Johnson’s Poker Face. Americana focuses on South Dakota residents, but we typically do not see it on the big screen without a reliance on clichéd criminals or stereotypical femme fatales and law enforcement. Tost gives the entire cast believable dialogue and narratives, accentuated by the intricate connections between the various storylines that converge in bloody ways. Some may feel the movie’s opening and the ghost shirt plot are derivative of Pulp Fiction and Fargo, but I found the non-linear approach and use of a MacGuffin to elevate what otherwise could have been a lesser movie. While the idea of cowboys and indians and the old-school western genre play into Americana, this is a refreshingly modern take with a nice score by David Fleming, Nigel Bluck’s cinematography, and Peter McNulty’s editing.
Americana is an impressive directorial debut from Tony Tost that plays in the sandbox that great filmmakers have toyed with in years past. Some will look at it as formulaic and derivative of prior movies, but I found the ensemble cast to be strong and helped by strong dialogue. I bought into the format of Americana and the bloody confluence of film that came before it to make this a solid work of entertainment. Americana does not revolutionize the genre or bring anything new, but it plays in a fun format that I enjoyed from beginning to end. While some will not be as enthralled by Americana, they will be impressed by Halsey, Zahn McClendon, and the prospect of the talent on display from Tony Tost and what he will make next.
Americana is now playing in theaters.
Source:
JoBlo.com
