Americana Parent Guide

Word is out in a rural South Dakota town that a valuable (and sacred) Lakota ghost shirt is coming on the market, and the rare artifact has attracted several interested parties. Dillon (Eric Dane) stole the shirt in the first place, but he suspects he can get a better price for it if he reneges on the client who hired him. Lefty (Paul Walter Hauser), a small-time rancher, and Penny Jo (Sydney Sweeney), the waitress at the town café, overheard his plans, and have decided to follow him for a chance to boost it themselves. Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of a local Indigenous organization, wants the shirt returned to its rightful owners. What they’re all about to discover is that Mandy (Halsey), Dillon’s ex, has stolen his car (with the shirt in it) and hightailed it for Wyoming.

The intertwining criminality inherent in the story makes it feel like a neo-western Pulp Fiction, but one that lacks Tarantino’s snappy dialogue and leans more towards outright comedy. The movie even makes it work sometimes, usually thanks to either Paul Walter Hauser or Zahn McClarnon. And, at a perfectly reasonably 107 minutes in length, the film manages not to drag. It’s always ping-ponging between different bits of lunacy, and as soon as one character runs out of crazy, the narrative jumps to another.

Americana is obviously a hard sell for family audiences, thanks to the constant profanity and bloody violence. A kid shoots someone with a bow in the first ten minutes, and that’s about as gentle as it gets. After that, you can expect a pretty steady diet of murder and cussing until the credits roll, with a little drinking and smoking on the side just to balance things out. There are also some heavy references to sexual assault and sex trafficking in cults, and that’s not usually something you want in family entertainment.

The Western setting certainly seems to be director Tony Tost’s wheelhouse, and he’s clearly very comfortable with the dust blown edges of America where the cowboys never quite quit. The film is aptly titled – you get a real cross section of cults, crime, and that old Western classic, stealing sacred artifacts from indigenous people. And, of course, Zahn McClarnon. Thank heavens.

About author

Keith Hawkes

Keith Hawkes graduated from Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada with a degree in English and History. His interests are movies, American literature, science fiction, almost every kind of music, and museums. He enjoys criticizing films for fun - although he's okay with being paid for it.