Another vapid, very low budget drama that's anything but dramatic. Meyers stumbles his way through a role that gives him little to do, playing an art forger juggling romance with underworld contacts. A bloated Michael Madsen grabs the cheque and who can blame him in a production this messy.
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Leofwine_draca26 April 2022
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imseeg24 December 2021I love gangster comedies. Tarantino was a master at it. Many have tried to COPY him and this is ANOTHER FAILED COPYCAT.
Not any good? Well, if you have been living in a cave for the last 40 years and you have never seen a movie during that 40 years, then I still would NOT RECOMMEND this movie IN ANY WAY, FORM POSSIBLE. -
jager-marc4 October 2021Great atmosphere, style, actors and music but because of the writing, the characters...bad dialogue and poor development - the story, or rather lack of it... is weak, un-engaging and almost boring.
After a week or two, I know I won't even remember it. Such a shame because it looks really cool. Could have been so good.
OH! And Emile Hirsch, in a movie about art and artists you LAZY 'artist'!!! You couldn't even shave your head for art's sake!? Or should we blame the make-up department, because that bald-cap he wears toward the end is so APPALLING! NO ONE ON EARTH's head looks like that when shaved. Just a polished flawlessly smooth shiny plastic looking dome... OMG it was so awful! - Completely destroyed the whole ending of the film! It was so glaring that it stood out so much as if you could suddenly see all the green screens or the set around the scene or the boom mics! YUCK!
Very disappointed. -
gorgeousgeorges7 October 2021I usually do not believe people that rates movies 1 or 2. I just believe they did not like the movie and as a result they give a 1. This time I am the one giving one star. Do not believe people that rate this movie 8-9-10. There is absolutely no chance that a real human being watched this movie and thought it deserved a 10. There are some great actors and there are some nice visuals but that is it. Midway through the movie you realize there is no story what so ever. I thought this looked good at first but it is the worst movie I have seen in a very long time. Do not waste your time on this.
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fraser-5565829 May 2022I thought this film was dire. Don't believe the reviews that say otherwise. It doesn't make a lot of sense and some of it is plain stupid (e.g. Walking along a ledge with a blindfold. Why would anyone do it that way?).
I wish I'd given up on it in the first hour and saved wasting my time on the rest of it, but I foolishly stuck with it and now regret it. Don't make my mistake. You'll not get anything out of sticking to the end of this film and do yourself a favour and listen to my advice. I only wish someone had advised me. -
clne2 October 2021These actors deserve a better movie. Big names for B movie.
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dmansel23 January 2022American Night, a noir thriller set in New York City's shifty art world, tells the story of an art critic, the ruthless head of a crime organization, and the fight for money, art, power and love. Tasked with delivering a print of Andy Warhol's famous Pink Marilyn painting, two-bit criminal Shaky delivers the painting to the wrong person, and what unravels is a tale of ambition, greed, opportunism, and supposedly, love.
Della Valle's decision to tell the story out of order begins as an interesting concept, starting with a scuffle at a diner and cutting away before the audience understands its ramifications or importance to the overall plot. What starts as interesting, however, is revealed to be a technique used as a crutch to try and keep the audience's attention and smooth over the rough patches. Dodgy storytelling and characters with muddled motivations that are never fully made clear are the glaring negative standouts in this movie, doing little to bolster the efficacy of this low budget effort. While there's nothing wrong with a low budget film (plenty of movies with small and micro budgets have crafted amazing stories), American Night seems like a story that was possibly a bit too ambitious for the budget it was granted. Regrettably, this leads to jarringly bad visual effects, out of sync ADR, and third rate prosthetics (most notably, a laughably obvious bald cap).
Some of the creative choices used in American Night also manage to detract from any overall appeal. Excessive language and gratuitous nudity for nudity's sake gives the movie the feel of a first pass at a script written by a college freshman. These elements do little to cover for the weak writing and exposition dumps throughout the film.
Starring Emile Hirsch as gangster Michael Rubino and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as art critic John Kaplan, American Night is a far cry from their previous works. Hirsch, who came to prominence after Into the Wild and Speed Racer, hits his marks, says his lines, and doesn't make many attempts to emote. Playing the new mob boss hell bent on retrieving a painting he believes is his rightful claim, Hirsch's lackadaisical performance drags the film down with each scene he's in. Delivering one bland take after another, Hirsch appears almost uninterested in being in the film, there to collect his paycheck and disappear. Rhys Meyers isn't much better in his portrayal as shady art critic John Kaplan, but he's not given much material to work with. Kaplan is the most driven, passionate person in the movie, wanting nothing more than to desperately open his own gallery, which runs him afoul of a number of shady denizens. Rhys Meyers tries his best with what's on the page, but due in large part to the weak writing, Kaplan comes across as only slightly less one note than the rest of the cast.
Jeremey Piven also graces the screen from time to time as John Kaplan's screwup of a brother, Vincent. A failed stunt double, Vincent gets caught up in Kaplan's schemes as Piven, known for his talents at portraying detestable people, attempts to play against type as a man desperately hunting for a second chance at life. Piven injects his usual bit of humor into the role, but it's not enough to save him from the fates of the script. Michael Madsen, on screen for all of five minutes, has sadly devolved into playing various variations of Michael Madsen on screen. The real shame of the film lies in its portrayal of women. No woman in American Night has any agency or agenda of their own. They're reduced to secretaries, helpers, or items used for exposition. The only actor worth his salt in this film is Fortunato Cerlino as Shaky, the man tasked with delivering the macguffin to the appropriate place at the beginning of the film. Cerlino's comedic timing, as well as his affable, everyman nature makes Shaky an endearing character to root for as he scrambles to complete his simple task.
Written and directed by Alessio Della Valle, American Night's main fault lies in its subpar writing. The story of a newly minted crime boss who's been forced to downplay his love of art and culture due to the toxic masculinity of his environment is an idea rife with possibilities. Unfortunately, these ideas are hardly touched upon, with Della Valle's screenplay breezing past them to instead focus on surface level characters with at times laughable dialogue. Della Valle seemed more interested in attempting to make a slick, cool film, but fills his world with unrelatable characters, cliché dialogue, and incomprehensible pacing. This, combined with the bland direction from Della Valle, makes American Night a effort to sit through from start to finish.
Overall, American Night is a complete mess of a film. A subpar attempt a Tarantino-esque style of storytelling falls flat, leaving the viewer with a frustrated idea of what could have been, had the idea germinated in a more talented storyteller. A lack of good story, strongly written characters, or solid directing make the film a 123 minute chore to grind through to reach the end credits. A complete disservice to the neo-noir genre that it portends to be, the glaring omission of the classic noir elements relegates the movie to a simple bottom tier crime flick. The lackluster acting on top of the weak writing, combined with a needlessly complicated story with too many moving parts, makes this one of the worst films of 2021. American Night is in theaters and on VOD October 1st. -
dominic-894-42895418 April 2022I'd rather watch paint dry. A film in which everyone appears to have forgotten how to do their job, acting, directing, script, music all get kicked to the curb in this pretentious waffle about mobsters and a stolen Warhol. Did the Director ever graduate? And did actors meet at a dinner party and owed someone a favour? I don't think anyone of them has been worse...
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lukewerna3 October 2021Unconventional plot, nice setting, good acting. Two hours well spent, definitely.
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random-7077814 January 2022Wow this is pathetic. The lead actors in this are all washed up. Careers destroyed by substance abuse, a couple of major "metoo" abusers. The second tier is cringeworthy no talent as well.t The plot, dialogue and directing are cringeworthy throughout.
Lastly the positive reviews here are pathetic fakes. Virtually all accounts whose only activity is to give this absolute garbage a gushing review/rating.
1/10 stars. -
kj_cassidy12 October 2021Another in an endless stream of films made by someone who's seen PULP FICTION too many times Completely devoid of talent behind the scenes, leaves a couple of half decent actors to fend for themselves.
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adamsaunders900352 October 2021It's not for everyone. This film really makes you think and isn't your usual Hollywood flick with a recycled plot. Where on earth is the Pink Marilyn! I kept asking myself that. A complex but easy to understand plot with talented actors. Super fun as this is a weekend movie for sure.
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williamhallin7 October 2021The cast did a great job. Good action, but I think the film could have been delivered a bit differently. Love it visually.
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kwenchow23 November 2021This film start with a man having his package to deliver, and he promise the job to be done scene! As turnout, this film is about two men(John, and Michael) get killed because of the same painting they pursue! Entire film full of boring conversation, and annoying overuse scene! Such as, overuse of the walking scene, overuse of the staring scene, overuse of the blackout scene, overuse of the drinking scene, overuse of the arguing scene, overuse of the calling names scene, overuse of the driving scene, overuse of the talking on the phone scene, overuse of the kissing scene, overuse of the sleeping scene, and overuse of the flashbacks scene! Make the film unwatchable! At the end, Sarah receive the original painting after the death of John! Still have post credit scene! Sarah been followed! That's it! Wasting time to watch!
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Just watched it for Jonathan Rhys Meyers who's a really good actor. But even the best actor could not help make this bad movie good. Three minutes into the movie and I started asking myself who's the director who desperately tries to imitate Quentin Tarantino and what are the bad dialogues for. Unfortunately no recommendation for this one.
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Utterly ridiculous. Almost as though they had a room full of people just yelling out ideas as the scrip was being written, and the writer managed to fit each and every one in somewhere. This movie just can't decide what it is. It wants to be artistic, but can't commit to a medium or style. It wants to be complex, but the timeline is messy and confusing. The characters are acted by talented people, but completely lack depth and motivation. Watch something else.
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graemebaxter11 April 2022Oh dear.
Acting more wooden than an English Forest, this is as cliched a film as you'll ever come across.
I can't even find anything positive to say about it aside from the, nope. Sorry, nothing
Avoid. -
freakofnature691 October 2021The movie is not bad per se. There are a lot of interesting scenes that could've been way more highlighted but due to creative decisions it just fell a little flat. The acting is good though and the aesthetic throughout is pleasing.
The story telling however is confusing and doesn't connect. While the attempt to try and tell the story anachronically is appreciated, fact is it just doesn't connect. The scenes are strangely slow and not to the point which one would think it translates into estabilishing the story and characters. The contrary happens though. There are too many layers and too many things trying to be told at the same time. There's a certain lack of cohesion that is almost felt as a very present feeling that the story is forcefully being told, instead of easily grasped. It lacked straightforwardness and enough engaging scenes to connect the viewer enough to care for and understand the anachronicity.
There are two scenes.that are absolutely beautiful yet not capitalized on enough:- The art love making scene. The camera work, the acting and the essence of the scene itself is beautiful. However the fast pace of it didn't let the viewer have time to digest and feel the scene, to connect to the couple so that on another scene further down the movie could be felt deeper.
- The Anastacia scene. To me this is the highlight of the movie. It was the first scene that felt engaging. Not only is the ballad beautiful, but the flashbacks along with the song created the feeling of the couple the aforementioned scene didn't do in its entirety. Nonetheless it also ended up falling flat: where supposedly the main character is reminiscing about his lover in a moment of nostalgia, in the following scene he's hooking up with another woman. It doesn't help matters that this part feels like a climax of some sorts, like he's on the verge of a breakthrough yet is inserted in the middle of the movie making it all so anti-climatic. This is one of those scenes that could've elevated the movie if placed in the right time and tweaked a little differently. Anastacia's song was the perfect song to tie it all together, and it's also a shame we got to listen to so little of it.
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starkcourtney7 October 2021I liked the films action sequences, but had a harder time keeping up with the unconventional plot and time jumps.
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HughBennie-7773 October 2021Flashy, art-heist-crime thriller packs a satisfying combination of dramatic narrative and humor, so it almost avoids the Tarantino Genre classification-almost. Regrettably, the movie features a Dead Rock Star diner with corresponding quirky cameos. But not even the bloated, collapsed-lung presence of Michael Madsen, as a crime boss, can prevent the movie's second act from becoming a third act. And then there's another third act to go. The visuals are beautiful, the performances strong and sincere, primarily those involving the cool male characters (of course). Especially Emile Hirsch and Jon Rhys Meyers. The women get little to do but enjoy sex scenes while dripping in paint, dance in clubs, or look beautiful while being hurt, disappointed or confused. Or getting shot. The length of the movie dilutes what is supposed to be a riveting climax, and events soon favour Slick over Dramatic. Instead, what arrives is more confusion than excitement, as the different characters keep pursuing a stolen Andy Warhol painting. What follows is a collection of well-shot gun sequences, but at least the movie's action is free of noxious stutter-cut retardation and CGI excreta. Overall, the movie is entertaining, but becomes unbalanced as the drama and character humor that worked so well in the first hour deteriorate. Pop star Anastacia's performance of the title song in a club is a highlight. The European locations standing in for New York work well. Aaron Stielstra plays a mobster.
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What was the point in making this film? The good reviews must be from persons involved in this film. What ever you do don't pay to watch it as you will never get your time and money back.
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emilymiller862 October 2021American Night is a well done movie with all of the gems hidden within the details. If you're an individual who can't watch a movie without asking "what did that mean?" or have ever finished a movie with a lot of unanswered questions, you're probably an individual who would give this movie a negative rating out of sheer confusion. However, if you enjoy thought provoking, true detective style work, then you'll walk away happy.
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jamessmith-882437 October 2021There's definitely alot going on with this film both visually and aesthetically. The start was a bit slow, but overall the film definitely grabbed my attention and is worth seeing it once.