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New York Post
11-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Americana' review: Sydney Sweeney's real controversy is her terrible new movie
movie review AMERICANA Running time: 110 minutes. Rated R (violence, language throughout and some sexual references). In theaters. Who cares about a jeans ad? Sydney Sweeney's real controversy is the bell-bottom-of-the-barrel quality of her new movie, 'Americana.' Newish, that is. The wannabe Western crime drama premiered at South By Southwest back in March 2023 and is only now skulking into some theaters. It's a violently annoying and annoyingly violent ensemble piece speckled with 'look how wacky we are!' characters that are impossible to put up with; a copycat Coen Brothers yarn with the depth of a tortilla. The cast breakdown reads like a parody. Sweeney plays Penny Jo, a shy South Dakota waitress who dreams of becoming a country singer but has a stammer. We are supposed to accept that the constantly photographed Sweeney is a wallflower nobody pays any attention to. The actress' fake speech impediment, meanwhile, comes off both rehearsed and not nearly rehearsed enough. 4 Sydney Sweeney stars in 'Americana.' Ursula Coyote Penny Jo finally gets some human face time with a creepy loser. That's Lefty (Paul Walter Hauser), a breathy schlub who has proposed to four women this year alone. Despite his name, he's right-handed and tells everybody that. There's a little boy named Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman), who insists he's the reincarnation of Sitting Bull, and shoots his mom's abusive boyfriend, Dillon (Eric Dane), with an arrow. He links up with Native American Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of a gun-totin' group that protects their tribal legacy with rifles. He says he took his moniker from the Forest Whitaker indie 'Ghost Dog.' 4 Lefty (Paul Walter Hauser) falls for Penny Jo (Sydney Sweeney.) Ursula Coyote And spitfire Mandy (Halsey) has escaped from her father's Warren Jeffs-type sex cult. And on and on. I was fed up with 'Americana' by minute 10, and the succeeding 100 did nothing to change my mind. Everybody in this quirk brigade is trying to get their hands on a rare Native American ghost shirt that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ghost Eye wants the garment for its historic significance. The rest are hungry for the cash. At one point, a group of pretentious rich snobs displays it in their living room. The points writer-director Tony Tost makes are painfully obvious. 4 Eric Dane's Dillon wants to get his hands on a rare Native American ghost shirt. Ursula Coyote Based on her prominence on the poster, you'd think so-so Sweeney is the lead. But the roles are equal in size — and irritation — and if there is any focal point, it's Halsey's Mandy, who has a meatier arc. Though, spoiler alert, Penny Jo finds her voice at the end, as our eyes remain desert dry. Tost bets that eccentricities will distract from his meandering, repetitive story that amounts to an object changing hands a few times. Under more assured direction, the shoddy script could have amounted to something mediocre at least. When the Coens or Quentin Tarantino amp up the weird in their dark depictions of a dusty America, they do so with unsettling style and an enticingly skewed vision of reality to match. 4 An unlikely pair is Cal and Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon). Ursula Coyote Of course, they, unlike Tost, also write strong screenplays. His 'Americana' is lifelessly visualized. Eye candy? Eye toothpaste. Pair pat-on-the-back lofty themes with bland imagery and artificially kooky characters speaking hokey, unconvincing dialogue, and you get a great big bore. 'Americana' ends on a bloody standoff, an emotional death and a heartfelt reunion. And it's all as engrossing and moving as a tumbleweed.
Digital Trends
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 great Max crime dramas you should watch in June 2025
Max, HBO Max, whatever it's called. Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming service remains one of the best places to go if you're looking for a movie. The streaming service has never fully figured out how to make sure that its subscribers can actually see everything available there, though, which is why we've pulled together a list of three great crime movies that you can watch now. Whatever flavor of crime movie you're looking for, you should be able to find it on this list. Check them out below: Recommended Videos Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Public Enemies (2009) Michael Mann has made a number of great crime films over the course of his career, but Public Enemies is perhaps his most underrated. The film, which tells the story of John Dillinger and the FBI's quest to bring him down, is equal parts stylish and gritty and a throwback to an era when the most famous men in America were criminals. Featuring a relatively grounded performance from Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as his capable foil, Public Enemies is a riveting examination of an era in American life when it felt like a particularly talented bank robber could get away with it forever. You can watch Public Enemies on Max. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) One of the most unusual movies from a great year for movies, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai follows a contract killer who operates under an ancient samurai code. His loyalty is to a low-level mobster who saved his life years before, and he tries to do his job with the kind of honor that is absent from modern crime. In addition to being a brilliant crime thriller anchored by Forest Whitaker in one of his best performances, Ghost Dog is the kind of movie that feels completely impossible to replicate. It's the only movie like it out there. You can watch Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai on Max. Casino (1995) In the wake of Goodfellas, Casino reteamed Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Martin Scorsese for what was seen as an underwhelming follow-up. Now, Casino is differentiated enough from its predecessor to stand on its own merits, which are considerable. The film follows a low-level gangster who finds himself assigned to Las Vegas as the city is erupting with activity. After finding early success in the job, he begins to struggle with his ex-wife, his enforcer, and the corrupt politicians that have come to define the city. A harder, edgier, and less funny movie than Goodfellas, Casino is nonetheless a worthy gangster epic. You can watch Casino on Max.
