Americana

"R", 1 hr 50 minutes

Action/Comedy

Arrive at 4:00 for 4:30 film

Theater 1, seat H 16

SOURCEL MovieWeb
Americana is a modern Western that manages to satisfy the blood-and-guns expectations of genre fans, while also turning an accusatory eye towards how Native Americans are viewed in contemporary (meaning white) society. First-time feature director Tony Tost, who served as showrunner for Season 2 of Peacock’s Poker Face, makes this larger point in a busy story filled with tasty characters and cross-connected plot lines, while his serio-comic script keeps the bullets — and the surprises — flying.

If all this sounds like a Coen Brothers film written by Quentin Tarantino, that’s because it often acts like one. Tost’s non-linear script is talky, darkly humorous and regionally specific; one can imagine Tarantino writing the scene where a murderous villain at a dusty roadside diner orders a Cobb salad with vinaigrette. In moments like these, Americana feels like an unconvincing collection of Western tropes and directorial theft. But that would deny Tost his due credit. In Americana, he manages to blend disparate elements into a smooth-running and enjoyable reminder that sometimes the road to a white man’s riches runs through Native American land.