Sydney Sweeney's Americana Movie Tanks Amid Jeans Ad Controversy
Americana receives bad reviews amid Sydney Sweeney controversy
The crime thriller Americana has suffered some negative reviews amid the ongoing discussion and controversy surrounding Sydney Sweeney's latest jeans ad for American Eagle.
The Daily Beast's Nick Schager, in his review, notes that Tost put 'minimal effort' into making the film 'amusing' for audiences. Further, he called the film a 'sluggish and monotonous country-ified neo-noir that fails to innovate and, worse, to utilize its magnetic leading lady and her capable co-stars.'
Schager added that Americana had 'fine actors' who were responsible for 'enlivening middling material.' However, he noted that the cast did 'enough' to ensure that the comedy crime movie was a 'pleasantly unremarkable affair.'
Meanwhile, The New York Post's Johnny Oleksinski opined that Americana was the 'real controversy' surrounding the actress. He added that the film was 'a violently annoying and annoyingly violent ensemble piece speckled with 'look how wacky we are!''
Moreover, Oleksinski called the film 'a copycat Coen Brothers yarn with the depth of a tortilla.' He shared that he was frustrated by Americana within the first 10 minutes. Oleksinski also stated that his frustration remained for the rest of the film's runtime.
Nevertheless, the film has also garnered some positive reviews. IndieWire's Rafael Motamayor said the film was 'charming, gritty, and all-round entertaining.' He added that it had 'gallows humor, compelling performances, and a big heart.'
Furthermore, Deadline's Valerie Complex said the film had 'brilliant writing.' She highlighted Tost's direction, noting that he avoided 'common pitfalls first-time directors encounter by overcomplicating things.' She also praised the film's cast, emphasizing Halsey and Zahn McClarnon's performances.
As of writing, Americana has an 83% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The post Sydney Sweeney's Americana Movie Tanks Amid Jeans Ad Controversy appeared first on Mandatory.
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She's really well-prepared and is just incredibly low-maintenance and very, very gifted." Tost said he was excited to put a fresh spin on American archetypes in his first movie. "I love the western. I'm a small-town, rural person myself and, so, I kind of wanted to Just evoke these figures that I love that were both in my childhood, as someone who watched Clint Eastwood movies, Burt Reynolds movies, grew up on pro wrestling, country music," Tost said. "There's a certain texture or tenor to these characters, but I also wanted to look at them from a modern-day lens." Exploring how these archetypes do or don't fit into a contemporary setting was important, too. "That's kind of the inspiration -- how can I take the realities of today and these archetypes from American culture, or from Western mythology, and kind of fuse them together?" Tost said. You can call him Ghost Eye. #AmericanaMovie - in theaters August 15. lionsgate (@Lionsgate) July 31, 2025 Working as a writer on the beloved TV series, Longmire, was good training for this film. It also introduced Tost to actor Zahn McClarnon, who co-stars in Americana, along with Halsey, Eric Dane and Simon Rex. "I knew Zahn was one of the very best actors going, a really cool guy and, so, I wrote that role for him, but also being in that Longmire takes place in Wyoming, bordering on a fictional Cheyenne reservation. I grew up next to the Muckleshoot Indian reservation in Washington state," Tost said. "For my first film, it made sense to me to be in the storytelling arena space that I feel comfortable in, that I still love and that I didn't feel like I've exhausted yet."
