Americana is a modern-day Western written and directed by Tony Tost starring Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Eric Dane, Zahn McClarnon, and Simon Rex. The backdrop of this crime thriller is a small town in South Dakota out in the middle of nowhere and revolves around a Native American artefact, a Lakota ghost shirt, that's fallen onto the black market.
Tost attempts to paint a stark portrait of America—the land of the free where cultural appropriation runs rampant. The film opens on Dillion MacIntosh (Eric Dane) as he fires off a shotgun, aimed at nothing but the blue sky above. These gunshots fill the air as the camera pans to a young Cal Starr (Gavin Maddox Bergman) eating and watching a Western on television. The words “U R ON SACRED LAND” are spray painted across a wooden plank stuck in the ground, a sign that Cal ignores as he dons a ceremonial headband and goes on his merry way to buy himself a bow and arrow, believing he's the reincarnation of Lakota leader Sitting Bull. Later on, Cal is brought up against Hank (Derek Hinkey) and Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon) who heads a local militant Native American group, and he separates himself from other white people as he tries to prove he knows more about Native American culture than they do. Many such pointed and at times comedic moments make the start of the film strong, but Tost's efforts get lost as the story begins to devolve.
Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser) and Penny Jo Poplin (Sydney Sweeney) team up to get the artifact after overhearing a meeting between antiquities dealer Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex), Dillion, and his associate Fun Dave (Joe Adler). Roy hires Dillion and Fun Dave to steal the ghost shirt from a wealthy man named Pendleton Duvall (Toby Huss), setting off a chain of events that spirals out of control. Huss' character is introduced in the middle of a wine fuelled rampage about Americans nowadays, a scene that's purpose is clearly Tost speaking directly to the audience. This kind of on-the-nose writing makes these critiques feel redundant when up against other films in the genre that have explored the same themes in a more nuanced way.
Americana is told in five parts, utilising nonlinear storytelling and a semi-anthological format to build suspense as it barrels towards the climax, but this ultimately amounts to nothing and it fails to add anything interesting to the narrative or the characters. This film relies heavily on its characters, specifically its ensemble cast, and there are indeed a handful of great performances. Sweeney embodies Penny, a mild-mannered waitress with a stutter that dreams of making it big as a country music star, in a way that makes her someone you want to root for. Though headlined by Sweeney, this film is stolen by Halsey. Her character, Mandy, returns to her radical father's compound and is forced to step back into her patriarchal family's world, losing her hardened demeanor until she has to reclaim her identity in order to protect herself and her son. Halsey had the opportunity to really show off her acting chops here, and she exceeds expectations—delivering a performance so strong that it shines through a half-baked ending.
Hauser's character Lefty laments in a speech he repeats over and over, “the world is so full of bad things,” and this quote is just about as deep as this film gets in its messaging. Especially in today's climate, this leaves much to be desired. As long as expectations are set appropriately, Americana is still an entertaining film that's full of dynamic and surprising performances.
Americana is on digital platforms from September 22.
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