AMERICANA

Americana spins an intriguing web of interconnected stories, paying homage to the great interconnected stories of the crime genre, full of shady characters, dire circumstances and bizarre situations, that when infused with a heart from the performances of Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser, makes for an engaging feature film debut from writer and director Tony Tost.

One hallmark of cinematic storytelling is the interconnected story subgenre, featuring seemingly unrelated characters whose lives collide. It’s been done in the romantic comedy genre while focused around holidays, most famously with Richard Curtis’s beloved Love Actually, or the outrageously hilarious Crazy, Stupid, Love., or most masterfully in the crime genre by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction, with the structuring of the genre allowing diverse and more complex stories to unfold. For his feature film debut as both a writer and director, Tony Tost takes this tried and proven formulae for storytelling and applies it to a modern Western inspired crime story. Armed with an all star cast featuring Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Simon Rex, Eric Dane, Zach McClarnon and Halsey, what unravels over the film’s runtime is an exciting, sometimes violent, but always entertaining tale of crime, escaping the confines of one’s life, and small town America in an engaging indie crime drama.

Weaving interconnected stories in a small South Dakota town of individuals whose fates become intertwined due to the emergence of a rare Lakota Ghost shirt that becomes an item of interest on the black market, Tost pulls off a challenging task with ease. Balancing multiple different characters, but never too many that you lose track of any of their individual storylines, and drawing them all together in a logical and timely manner to build the rising tension of the story towards its shootout of a third act, Tost never falters in his writing and direction of Americana. Yes, we have seen this similar type of crime story play out from great writers like Quentin Tarantino, and more recently in last year’s The Last Stop in Yuma County, but it's a tried and proven blueprint for an engaging character story that lends itself naturally to twists and turns, outrageous moments, and violence, and Tost executes all of this in an undeniably entertaining fashion. Infused with dreams of a grander life, small scale crime and murder, there is an inherent small town feel that Tost evokes throughout the film which is a major key to the its success, as he creates a story that fits comfortably within the confines of its setting and never tries to be something more than it is. And informing Tost’s storytelling at every turn is the New Mexico locations that act as an additional character, echoing the loneliness and desperation in the characters to better their lives than what this small town has to offer, the costume design of the Jillian Bundrick that captures the humble lifestyles of the characters with comforting sense of home infused with the costumes of a modern Western, and a solid soundtrack of country hits from the likes of Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, Ian Noe and Dolly Parton.

But, what makes the film is the characters, and in extension, the cast that brings these peculiar individuals to life. Halsey brings a strength to Mandy that creates a tough as nails woman trying to break free from the danger she has created for herself trying to escape her life, while Dane and Rex are both perfectly slimy and deadly to create two of the film’s villains. Gavin Maddox Bergman is adorable as Cal, effortlessly evoking this young boy’s belief that he is a reincarnated indigenous leader with a sincerity and believability, preventing his character from becoming a cheap comedic gag.

Though, it is Sweeney and Hauser who are the standouts of the film. Sweeney is delightful as the stuttering Penny Jo, a young woman trying to follow her dreams despite being stuck in a dead end town. The connection she forms with Hauser’s Lefty is sweet, not bearing any hint of romance despite Lefty’s downfall of proposing marriage to girls he barely knows, but one of a budding friendship of two individuals brought by chance trying to better each other’s life. Hauser brings a bumbling goodness to Lefty, creating an awkwardly endearing character who you can’t help but feel for despite his personal pitfalls, allowing him and Sweeney. With these two performances, amongst a selection of more hardened, diabolical and dangerous characters, Sweeney and Hauser instill hope within Tost’s story that captures the audience's attention and becomes their guide through the double crossing, violence and chaos that erupts on screen.

Evoking that classic grit of the western genre that Hollywood has sadly forgotten in recent years, and blending it with an interconnected crime story, Tony Tost has delivered a solid cinematic offering for audiences. Packed with colourful characters to inhabit  a simplistic but rich story that propels each character to a justified ending, whether tragic or happy, and a cast that infuses life and energy into every frame of the film, there is no doubt that Americana is a good film that sadly, due to smaller scale marketing, many won’t discover until it leaves theatres and hits streaming later this year. With the shining performances of and budding on screen chemistry between Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser, Tony Tost weaves an entertaining tale of crime, violence and small town America in Americana that largely thanks to the talented cast, becomes a zany and entertaining cinematic escape