The twisty, frequently funny thriller Americana hearkens back to the days when Tarantino riffs were around every corner, and in this instance, that comparison isn’t a bad thing. A highly unpredictable, irreverent, and intricately constructed small town crime saga, Americana packs a lot of value into an unassuming package. It’s more of a good time than a great movie, but in these lazy, waning days of summer when original, quality entertainment tends to be in shorter supply, Americana is a welcome change of pace.
Set in rural South Dakota (but filmed in New Mexico, which makes for a nice stand-in), Americana is one of those thrillers where a bunch of quirky characters fight for possession of a valuable MacGuffin, frequently leading to bloodshed, near misses, and comedic misunderstandings. The artifact everyone is vying for is a priceless indigenous artefact: a Lakota Ghost Shirt. Morally corrupt and greedy antiques dealer Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex) hires a professional killer, Dillon MacIntosh (Eric Dane), to steal the shirt from its current owner. The job is successful, but Dillon learns the goods are worth a lot more than he’s getting paid, so he decides to hang onto it himself. The entire criminal plot – which is discussed openly in a diner – is overheard by a painfully shy waitress and novice country singer named Penny Jo (Sydney Sweeney) and a kindhearted, lovelorn, brain damaged veteran named Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser). Although neither of them are criminals by trade, the allure of making enough money to get out of town appeals to their sensibilities and they make a play for the shirt.
But there’s a problem. Well, a couple of them, actually. You see, there’s this whole thing about the abusive Dillon pushing his wife, Mandy (Halsey) too far, and long story short, she gets possession of the shirt and attempts to split town. In a hurry to get out of dodge, Mandy has to leave behind her son, Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman), who has become convinced that he’s the reincarnation of Sitting Bull, and that “his people” need him to stay on the land. Although Cal is very much white, he attempts to integrate himself with Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of an indigenous crime syndicate who would also like to get his hands on the ghost shirt.
All of this is before yet another thread is added involving a creepy fundamentalist Christian cult (led by Christopher Kriesa) that will play heavily into the climax of Americana. Writer-director Tony Tost (a television veteran delivering his first feature) has a vivid imagination and a lot of ideas about rural America and white privilege, but thankfully the brisk pacing and sharp script never makes it feel like there’s too much going on at once. The timeline and perspectives shift across a number of different chapters, and while this kind of narrative can feel tiresome in lesser hands, Tost has crafted something that goes down smooth and easy. The characters are fascinating, and Tost’s vision of their world is both bleak and scenic at the same time. There’s great beauty all around the citizens of Americana, but they’re all well past being over it by this point.
There aren’t any real heroes in Americana, just flawed people that viewers will like more than others. Sweeney and Hauser make for a dynamic pair of loveable oddballs that are in over their heads, crafting a will-they-or-won’t they relationship that has a lot of sweetness and heart. Halsey makes a major impact with the film’s most surprising performance as the token “woman with a secret past.” And in there scenes together, McClarnon and young Bergman get some of the film’s biggest laughs, as the indigenous heavy grows increasingly frustrated with the delusional kid. Every time Ghost Eye calls Cal out on his cultural appropriation, the actors are able to generate big laughs out of material that could’ve turned out insensitive or politically incorrect without the proper care Tost brings to the framing of the characters.
The story carries with it a pleasing amount of swerves and sharp turns, and from the opening, Americana presents itself as a film where anything can happen at any moment. While the mechanics of the plot and the mad race to capture the MacGuffin are familiar, the details are what set Americana apart from other similarly themed caper films. At any second, a moment of shocking violence can change the entire dynamic of the film, and Tost employs these beats with laser precision. Tost’s insightful commentary on how the “new west” differs from problematic old school movies about cowboys and indigenous peoples is insightful and delicately woven into a post-modern framework. It’s a fun time watching people do some very bad things.
Americana opens in theatres on Friday, August 15, 2025.
