Americano

2005 "Do what scares you"
5.9| 1h35m| R| en
Details

"Americano" centres around Chris McKinley (Jackson), a recent college graduate backpacking through Europe who savours his last three days of freedom before boarding the career fast track back in the United States. In Pamplona with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper), Chris meets an Australian thrill-seeker (Phil Barantini), a quintessential Spanish beauty (Varela) and an enigmatic provocateur (Dennis Hopper), all of whom encourage him to rethink his life. As the minutes and seconds until his departure tick away, Chris struggles with an age-old question: Should he follow the beaten path or risk it all on the road less travelled?

Director

Producted By

mark edwards robert production

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Reviews

ShangLuda Admirable film.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Dana Al-Basha This movie is about three friends, a couple and their writer friend Chris who travel around the world to find themselves and the truth. When they reach Spain their adventure heats up when they meet Adella. Adella and Chris are instantly attracted to each other, she decides to give him a taste of Spain.From food, beautiful places, music (the soundtrack is absolutely amazing!), and even the famous San Fermin (Pamplona Bull Run). But my favorite scene must be the scene when Adella played by Leonor Varela seduces Chris played by Joshua Jackson. Such a beautiful scene and the song is super hot.
anna-patom I wish there were more films like this. Truly a gem. If you like foreign films then you will love the style of this American tale. It captures real life in a remarkable, visceral way that few films ever achieve. The bullfight was a little too bloody for my taste but writer-director Kevin Noland did a good job of showing the good, bad and the ugly of the Spanish tradition. You won't have to go to a bullfight or run with the bulls once you see this film - but you will want to go to Spain. And the running of the pit bulls and little people has to be one of the most bizarre and funny scenes I can recall - classic! Great acting and directing. The visuals are so good they ought to be studied. Music was a strange mix of old and new but it works well.
mjsantoro What Drivel ! How could anybody consider this movie anything but amateur film making at it's worst. I've seen better home movies. No story, no content, no start or finish, just utter nonsense. The best part of this movie were the closing credits, and the relief that you feel when this garbage finally comes to an end. The only reason I sat and suffered through the entire ordeal, was due to the possibility of encountering the good part, based on earlier reviews. The good part never arrives, and you realize that your time has been wasted. My advice is to save this movie for some late night when you have insomnia, and prefer not taking a drink or medication, since this movie will put you right to sleep.
Jeremiah Lewis Writer/Director Kevin Noland's debut feature, Americano, starts out large and loud, with a birds-eye view of a Spanish crowd packed into a plaza like conquistadors on a gold-bound ship. It is the annual Pamplona running of the bulls festival, and the anticipation and jubilation rise on the air in a celebration of the very Spanish tradition that culminates in a series of duels between matadors and their bull partners. Americano is rife with metaphor, utilizing both Spanish festival traditions and the surrounding land and cityscapes to hammer home the theme of finding oneself at the crux of a life changing moment.Joshua Jackson plays Chris, a twenty-something whose days at the festival are the last before returning to the States for a career in a possibly lucrative, but soul-deadening office. With his two friends Ryan (Timm Sharp) and Michelle (Ruthanna Hopper) in tow, the three are in high festival mood when Chris' backpack is stolen. Suddenly, the future looks even closer, and Chris begins having doubts about going back to the States. Here, I feel alive he writes in his journal, as he participates in the mad dash running of the bulls, escaping into the stadium where the bright sunshine overwhelms Chris in his ecstasy (no matter that the film was overexposed for that particular scene...the sentiment is there).At a curious ex-pat bar owned and operated by an eccentric (Dennis Hopper) who shouts bizarre and cryptic sayings like "Be very wary of the con...the Ameri-con...Americano!", Chris meets the vivacious Adela (Leonor Varela), a beautiful actress who takes to his plight and invites them all to her villa, set in the wide sweeping vista of an Iberian paradise. Here Chris really takes to heart his impending future and begins to question what he wants out of life. His friends too, begin to see cracks in their own self-built wall of security, and suddenly their lives have become a bit more complicated.If the plot sounds hazy and indistinct, that's because it is, but not to its detriment. While a bit more structure might be helpful to create a sense of the whole, Americano dwells not on the outward events, but on the inward spirit and thought of its characters. Using Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises as Chris' guidebook and the film's thematic conceit, Kevin Noland displays no urgency in presenting his vision of the anxieties and enthusiasm of young adulthood, its trials, its secrets, and its ambivalence. We aren't given easy answers, but the questions posed are introspective, to be taken in softly and quietly, with a sincerity of expectation for seeking out what's right and real and true.In the end, Americano is a finely tuned, though technically flawed in some respects, film with fine performances from Joshua Jackson and Dennis Hopper, though the revelation is Leonor Varela, who injects her character with a sense of the sublime, an earthy angel with a taste for the dangerous and exotic, but not without a sense of home. Timm Sharp supplies some good comedic moments, and though understated and slightly old for the part, Ruthanna Hopper shows she's a capable actress. Noland's direction is subtle. The film suffers from a few technical problems, including poor ADR sync and a few scenes where footage appears overexposed. However, these should not be cause to miss a wonderful debut from an ambitious and talented writer and director.

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