Oh, Sydney Sweeney. This was bound to happen eventually.
To address the elephant in the room, I’m giving Sweeney the benefit of the doubt regarding the whole “good jeans” fiasco. Say whatever you want about it, but blame the ad agency and the corporation that hired them, not the actor who got paid just to show up and say her lines. That said, Sweeney herself has been oddly quiet about the whole controversy, and her refusal to take one side or another is absolutely on her.
Regardless, this general sense of antipathy is a sign of something greater: Sweeney has overstayed her welcome.
This was destined to happen. For a couple of years there, Sydney Sweeney was a cultural sex symbol. Her name was synonymous with the very concept of the hot young actor every guy (and more than a few girls) lusted after, her name at the top of every fancasting list. (Freaking Power Girl. Seriously.) Right up until her fifteen minutes run out and she gets swapped out for some newer model. It’s a tale as old as time. For every Marilyn Monroe, there are a thousand pretty young faces who flamed out and got cast into obscurity. It’s cruel, but that’s the business.
You may be skeptical at the notion that Sweeney has reached her sell-by date. Surely, she’s still got name recognition and a powerful brand as a capable actor/producer and sex symbol. Counterpoint: Americana. This film was shot in 2022, Lionsgate bought the film in 2023, and they only gave it a limited release on an overcrowded August weekend in 2025.
Granted, a lot of that speaks volumes about Lionsgate and the apocalyptic decline they’ve been going through lately. On the other hand, it’s a movie with Sydney Sweeney — supposedly the hottest young heartthrob in the business right now — at the top of the bill, and none of the studios in Hollywood were willing to outbid freaking Lionsgate. The studio pathetically desperate for a hit, and they waited two years just to bury it.
The writing is on the wall, folks: Either the movie is really that bad or Sweeney’s career is really that injured. Or maybe there’s a third option: Lionsgate had a legitimately good movie with a bona fide star and they mishandled it because they suck so badly. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Americana comes from writer/director Tony Tost, here making his feature debut after coming up as a poet and making a respectable career for himself in television. It’s yet another film comprised of multiple chapters unfolding in non-chronological order, each chapter loosely built around the POV of a different character. The unifying plot takes a while to get going, but suffice to say all the different chapters are tied together by the theft of a highly valuable stolen Lakota relic.
In summary, what we’ve got here is a neo-western drama in which an endearing ensemble of quirky buffoons are all chasing after an expensive MacGuffin. It’s all very Coen-esque. So, let’s meet some of these lovable losers, shall we?
Sweeney plays Penny Jo, a waitress with aspirations of being the next great country singer/songwriter. Trouble is, she’s got crippling self-esteem issues due to her abusive mother and her debilitating stutter. Enter Lefty (Paul Walter Hauser), a wounded Iraq vet working as a ranch hand, so desperately lonely that he will propose marriage to literally any woman who hangs around with him for a month. He’s a sucker for a pretty face, she needs backup in getting the money to go to Nashville, and we’re off to the races.
Meanwhile, Halsey plays Mandy, a delinquent ne’er-do-well whose latest ill-advised fling is with a thieving homicidal psychopath (Dillon, played by Eric Dane). And it’s Dillon who gets hired to steal the Lakota relic on behalf of the local wealthy asshole (Roy Lee Dean, played by Simon Rex). Long story short, the relic falls into Mandy’s possession and off she goes.
Rounding out the main cast is Mandy’s young ward (it’s a long story I won’t get into here), Gavin Maddox Bergman in the role of Cal. This kid’s deal is that he’s an eccentric young white boy who is unshakeably 100 percent convinced beyond any doubt that he is the reincarnation of Sitting Bull. That is seriously and literally how he introduces himself to everyone — “I’m the living reincarnation of Sitting Bull” — to the point where he doesn’t recognize his own family or his own legal name. If you don’t know what to do with that, don’t worry — none of the other characters have any idea what to do with that. I’m not even entirely sure the filmmakers knew what they were doing with that.
But I think I can make a pretty good guess.
It’s worth pointing out that kids brought up by shitty parents is a recurring trend in this picture. I’ve already mentioned poor Penny Jo and her vindictive bullying mother. We’ve also got Mandy’s upbringing under a misogynist evangelical cult, which is beyond fucked up in too many ways to catalogue here. And unfortunately, Cal has visibly had an unstable upbringing under a mother figure — namely Mandy — who can barely take care of herself.
Throughout the movie, there’s a strong implication that Cal is looking for his people. He’s looking for his home. And in his desperate search, he settled on a group that couldn’t accept him or recognize him as one of their own, even if they wanted to. It’s kind of tragic, in a way.
In many ways, Cal is the ultimate example of cultural appropriation. He really does mean well, and he believes with all his heart and soul — and all the godlike powers of a child’s imagination — that he really is Sitting Bull reborn. Unfortunately, Cal is fiercely loyal to an identity that doesn’t really exist. He’s loyal to a vision of “Indians” that was made by colonialist white people in their own image. For all his good intentions, and all the genuine good he does for the Native American community in this picture, his ongoing delusion is an insult that can’t be ignored or tolerated. Regardless of whether it’s a stubborn fantasy or an honest psychosis, this is not acceptable.
Oh, yeah, we should probably talk about the Native Americans. Because naturally, there’s a militant Lakota group that takes umbrage at the notion of their holy historical relic being stolen and sold off, and now they’re trying to get it back. Unfortunately, Zahn McClarnon and Derek Honkey don’t really get to do much except play the straight foil to all the nonsense happening around them. But that’s exactly what this picture needed, and they do the job well.
Moreover, it’s worth noting that the Native Americans kick ass all throughout this picture. When the shit finally hits the fan, we get a neat reinterpretation of the classic “Cowboys and Indians” conflict, with a modern progressive twist. It gets even better when the white colonizing bigots and billionaires get caught in the crossfire. And without getting too deep into spoilers, the third act comes with a delectable feminist spin.
The theme of exploitation is a constant thread running throughout this picture. We’ve got indigenous tribes, rural working class folk, women and children, all kept under the heel of billionaires, murderers, religious cult leaders, and so on. Sometimes the underdogs win and sometimes they die, but the fight is what really matters. Whether it’s by guns and bullets or the humble bow and arrows, violence is here depicted as a method that goes both ways as a means of oppression and of liberation. What could be more American than that?
Sweeney puts in an admirable effort here, but there’s simply too much Hollywood sheen on her to completely sell the illusion that she could be some naive redneck ingenue from out in the sticks. She comes close, to be sure, but it’s not quite enough. Especially when she’s trying to hold her own against Halsey and Hauser, both of whom are acting squarely in their respective comfort zones. And of course there’s Bergman, who completely and totally sells us on a white boy who might actually be the reincarnation of Sitting Bull for how hard he believes it.
Americana is a deceptive one, because it’s such a slow burn. From start to finish, the filmmakers keep the focus on the characters, all of whom are intriguing enough to keep the plot moving and the themes developing. I might add that when the action really gets cooking in the third act, it’s loaded with great suspense and fun reversals.
Overall, it’s a sweet little elegiac work with some great heartland atmosphere, solid performances, memorable characters, and modern themes. This won’t be for all tastes, and I expect this one will find its audience on home video after Tost has picked up a few more noteworthy credits. Even so, fuck Lionsgate for botching this release so hard, it’s a good movie. Check it out.