Americana review Sydney Sweeney heads cast in eminently watchable crime drama

"There is a whiff of grandiosity about this crime drama's title, hinting at ambitions to say something a little bigger than usual for a movie about cowboys and Indigenous Americans concerning cultural identities and appropriation, the legacy of the old west, and so on. It doesn't quite lasso the bronco, but the ambitions of writer-director Tony Tost's yarn are ambitious and interesting, and he has at least assembled a cracking cast to tell it."

"Audiences will probably be most excited about the presence of star-billed Sydney Sweeney, here playing Penny Jo, a sweet waitress with a stammer, although Sweeney is very much part of an ensemble that distributes screen time democratically. (The film premiered in 2023 at South by Southwest, but is only coming out now, perhaps because Sweeney has now become a legit phenomenon.)"

"At the New Mexico middle-of-nowhere diner where Penny Jo slings hash, she stumbles on a plot to steal a rare Lakota artefact from a collector (Toby Huss, making the most of a cameo role). This calfskin MacGuffin becomes of interest to a number of other parties, including: antiquities dealer Roy (Simon Rex from Red Rocket); Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman), a little kid who thinks he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull, and Cal's damaged mother Mandy (Halsey), the survivor of a patriarchal cult/ family;"

The film is a crime drama with Western elements that examines cultural identity, appropriation, and the legacy of the old West. An ensemble cast is led by Sydney Sweeney as Penny Jo, a stammering diner waitress who discovers a plot to steal a rare Lakota calfskin artefact. The artefact attracts an antiquities dealer; a child who believes he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull and his damaged mother; a lonely cowboy with romantic interest in Penny Jo; and an Indigenous revolutionary who mixes political theory with criminal action. A chronologically scrambled chapter structure builds toward a final showdown while the screenplay balances ambitious themes with occasional hokey lines and familiar genre camera setups.

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