More and more lately, there have been films with chapters or an anthology type story to them. The Life of Chuck was one that had the chapters out of order, Freaky Tales and Weapons are a couple of recent movies that had chapters as well. The latest in this category is Americana. A crime thriller is set in North Dakota in present times, but it feels like a period piece. This is a throwback to “Pulp Fiction” and other similar movies. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the characters and the story in the film. I’m sure anyone who gives this movie a chance will like it as well.

The first chapter of this film is called The Old New West. This will give viewers an idea of the aesthetic and feel the filmmaker is going for. A woman Mandy (Halsey, the singer) runs out of the house, which is a mobile home, and yells at her son, Call (Gavin Maddox Bergman) to get in the car, a Dukes of Hazzard 1969 Dodge Charger, with her. He doesn’t want to and says he’s the reincarnated coming of Sitting Bull, the famous Native American war chief. She then tells him to go to the neighbors, and she’ll be back to get him. A man, Dillin (Eric Dane), comes running out of the house shortly after her with a gun and a bloody wound on the back of his head. The boy proceeds to shoot arrows at this man until he gets him in the neck. This ends up killing him. Then he starts walking off down the road towards Native American territory, which isn’t very far.

This is the crazy vibe of this film. Director Tony Tost set the tone right away with the woman, the kid, and the killing. The rest of the chapters 2:The Ballad of Lefty and Penny Jo, 3:The Ghost Shirt, 4: Homecoming, 5:Here’s Mr. Motherfucker are just as crazy and wild as the first chapter was. In the other chapters, the viewers get more of the characters and a lot more story regarding why all of the craziness is going on in this film. Once the second part of the story starts, all of the film starts to come into focus. The second chapter is my favorite of the lot because it focused mainly on Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser) and Penny Jo Poplin (Sydney Sweeney). I loved these characters. 

I love talking about Macguffins. A term my favorite film critic Roger Ebert coined many years ago. An item or money or jewelry or something of value that drives the plot of a movie forward but ultimately doesn’t mean anything. In this film, that item is the Ghost Shirt, a Native American garment that is said to be over one hundred years old and belonged to the Lacota Nation. Needless to say, more than one person is after this shirt for its value. Two of them are Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex) and Ghost Eye (Zahn McLaren). One is a collector and salesman of rare iniquities, and the other is a native American living on the reservation who wants his people’s property back. These two, among others, are both after the shirt. That’s easier said than done, though. This shirt wasn’t very easy to get their hands on.

A movie such as this with multiple story elements,  characters, and a macguffin can get a little convoluted. With the later chapters, the story gets pretty crazy. There are multiple factions trying to get the shirt or get money out of the deal in a trade for the artifact. This causes a huge gunfight at an old country home in the middle of the woods. Everybody is shooting at one another with guns, and yes, bows and arrows. I did not stutter. Even though one character in the story does have a prominent stutter. These sequences were wild. I didn’t know the up from down and right from wrong in this scenario. It was very chaotic, to say the least. I was rooting for multiple people in this movie. Not everyone came out alive, though. Some were pretty banged up. 

Paul Walter Hauser is an actor who is in a few things right now. Fantastic Four:First Steps, The Naked Gun sequel, and now this film. In each of his roles, he gives something different. Here, he  is much more sympathetic and has a heart of gold. He just wants to meet the woman of his dreams and someone he can spend the rest of his life with. He almost finds that person in Sweeney’s character. Together, they have pretty good chemistry on screen. Sweeney ‘s character is the one with the stutter I mentioned. She seems to like Houser’s character even though he didn’t seem to like her at first. They got to know each other a little bit, and love was in the air for these two. They were a pretty couple in the context of this movie. In real life, I don’t know if this is a real thing that happens. 

Sydney Sweeney is an actress most people know from her role in the adult oriented high school drama Euphoria on HBO Max. She has parlayed her success on the show into a pretty decent character. Some roles are better than others. She is in two movies right now with Eden and this one. Both characters are completely different, which is good. The character she plays here might be the second best of her career after the one in Euphoria. She shows emotion and vulnerability as this waitress with a stutter who’s an aspiring singer. I really felt for her and wanted her and the Hauser character to get together in this film. She was honestly pretty amazing in this movie.

Halsey is prominently known as a pop singer from New Jersey. Her distinct accent showed very noticeably. She showed me a lot, though, regarding her acting ability. She had a spunky side to her that played well into this character. Her character’s back story, which viewers will come to see and hear about, is a bit cooky. Despite that, she played this character well. She showed that the woman can be authoritative and give demands as well as be driven to something they believe in. When musicians enter into movies, it can be a mixed bag. Sometimes, they turn out to be great actors, and other times, it can be a disaster. This time around, it was the first one. Halsey is a singer who did a good job as this woman who’s had enough and wants to make her own path in life.

Americana is a film that gives audiences quite a bit. As audiences will inevitably see, the title says it all. The big action set piece was pretty crazy. Bullets and arrows were flying in all directions. Not everybody got out alive or unscathed. The acting from a handful of the cast was outstanding. Hauser, Sweeney, and Halsey were all very good in their respective roles. The story as a whole was a mixed bag, but I enjoyed it for the most part. The macguffin was important but eventually meaningless as they usually are. As a whole, this movie was an enjoyable experience for the characters. I genuinely liked most of them and cared what happened to them. The filmmaking style by Tost worked well within the context of the chapter storyline. Hopefully, people will give this film a chance this weekend.  It deserves it.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen