THE STORY – The lives of local outsiders and outcasts violently intertwine when a rare Lakota Ghost shirt falls onto the black market in a small South Dakota town.
THE CAST – Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey, Simon Rex, Eric Dane, Gavin Maddox Bergman & Zahn McClarnon
THE TEAM – Tony Tost (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 110 Minutes
The recent resurgence of Americana iconography in the cultural zeitgeist has been unmistakable, surfacing in album covers, fashion trends, commercials, and beyond. Yet the romanticized vision it evokes often feels at odds with the reality of the country it celebrates, a contradiction filmmaker Tony Tost fully embraced when crafting his directorial debut, “Americana.” What unfolds is a brisk neo-noir steeped in reflections on the exploitation of the land’s original inhabitants, and of those who continue to exploit it today. This layer of thematic bite elevates the film beyond its genre trappings, posing pointed questions about how modernity is perceived in the American West.
Tost structures “Americana” like a novel, breaking the story into chapters that each follow different residents of a small South Dakota town. Their lives intersect through a stolen Lakota Ghost Shirt, a sacred artifact whose value, both material and symbolic, drives the film’s events. For Sydney Sweeney’s Penny Jo, it is a ticket to Nashville to chase her dream of becoming a country singer despite her pronounced stutter. For Halsey’s Mandy Starr, it is a means to finally escape the religious trauma that has haunted her and her younger brother Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman). The Ghost Shirt passes from one character to another like the Winchester rifle in Anthony Mann’s classic “Winchester ’73,” functioning both as a McGuffin that propels ambition and as a mirror for the modern West itself.
Tost never lets his disillusionment with the West overshadow the pleasures of the genre. His sharpest writing comes when characters poke holes in the myths and ideals of a bygone era, most notably Zahn McClarnon’s Ghost Eye, a Karl Marx–quoting, Jim Jarmusch–loving resistance leader determined to return the artifact to its rightful owners. For many in “Americana,” the Ghost Shirt is a path to profit. For Ghost Eye, it is his culture. Young Cal treats it with a more comedic reverence, hilariously trying to convince Ghost Eye and anyone who will listen that he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull.
The ensemble’s mix of charm and sleaze keeps the film lively. Simon Rex’s slick artifact dealer Roy Lee Dean, Paul Walter Hauser’s big-hearted “Lefty” Ledbetter, and the rest of the cast bring personality to even the more archetypal roles. While not every character fully escapes caricature, everyone thrives under Tost’s direction. The film does falter in pacing, as its chapter format inevitably favors some storylines over others. Still, Tost ultimately ties the threads together in a stylish climax that delivers some of the film’s strongest beats.
In recent years, Westerners with a “modern” sensibility have found a fresh footing. While “Americana” does not lean as far into genre subversion as Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” it shares kinship with “The Last Stop in Yuma County:” a semi-mean-spirited, tightly directed tale that is as entertaining as it is an exercise in craft. With “Poker Face” and now “Americana,” Tost proves he has a gift for creating oddball characters who get in over their heads. Whether he continues in the western genre or strikes out elsewhere, one thing is clear. Tony Tost knows how to have a good time, and he brings the audience along with him.
