Released: August 21st,
2015
Rated: R
Distributor: Lionsgate
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher
Grace, Connie Britton, Walton Goggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale
Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh
Written by: Max Landis
Personal Bias Alert: likes genre mixing, likes the cast
7.9 of 10
2015
is the year we find out if those guys that made Chronicle can convert their potential into long-term success. We’ve already seen (or perhaps skipped)
director Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four debacle,
and now writer Max Landis is back for evaluation with American Ultra. While it’s
not hard to top Trank’s dismal follow-up, Landis very nearly hits a bullseye with
this action-comedy-romance mashup, the difficulty of which proves that he’s no
fleeting talent.
Starring
Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as an unmotivated stoner couple, Eisenberg’s
Mike instantly throws their lives into disarray when he’s activated into a stone
cold killing machine. Not that the mayhem’s entirely his fault; he
is being targeted by the CIA, and his gentle nature means that death only
swirls around when someone’s attacking him or Stewarts’ Phoebe. Yes, it’s the old I-don’t-know-how-but-I’m-a-badass
routine, but this bloodbath’s got a heart of gold in Mike and Phoebe’s very
mature relationship. While they are
slackers, the life they’ve built together is wiser than it looks. An early fight shows that they’re capable of
handling problems with honest sensitivity, and the ensuing scenes allow them to
navigate their disappointment with a complexity rarely given to couples twice their
age in Hollywood. These moments pay huge
dividends once everything hits the fan, as Eisenberg and Stewart only have to
exchange glances for us to be crushed by their desire to get out of this
together.
Obviously,
Eisenberg and Stewart have great chemistry, but they’re just as adept at the
action and the comedy. Eisenberg excels
at doing a mix of the roles we’ve seen him in before, but Stewart’s exasperated
straight-man routine is the big surprise, managing to land all of the belly
laughs thrown her way. Stewart’s
abilities are magnified the more she’s given to do, and she’s got a whopper of
a role in Phoebe. In comparison to these
two, the rest of the characters do seem a bit flat, especially the cartoonish
CIA agents played by Topher Grace and Walter Goggins. Connie Briton, who appears as the one agent
trying to help Mike, doesn’t get much more to work with than Grace or Goggins,
but it’s so delightful to see Coach’s wife (sorry, that’s how I always think of
her) totting around a big gun that her diminished role is forgiven. That’s one of the little things that American Ultra gets right; it doesn’t
shut its women out of the fights. They
may not be the strongest players on the field, but they step in whenever they
can, refusing to be left on the sidelines of their own lives.
And
those fights are some of the bloodiest sequences I’ve seen all summer. An array of weapons (and non-weapons) bash in
skulls and draw blood using moves that are often left shockingly in frame. The choreography does move quickly, though, giving
the scenes a frantic energy that leaves you as energized and as confused as
Mike is. That makes it easy to go with
the flow of what he’s being forced to do, but that flow isn’t always smooth. The gore is overused, and there’s times
during the middle section of the film that you’ll want the humor and the
romance to assert itself more, but this quibble is a problem that comes with
doing too much too well.
Most
films stick to one or two genres, too terrified or unsure of themselves to try
for everything at once. The difficulty
in pulling off the mix makes this fear understandable, but these efforts have
an upside, too. If you get enough of it
right, even a flawed mix like American
Ultra will inspire adoration.
Other Notes:
Ø There’s some really stylish pieces of action here.
Ø Stick around through the first part of the credits. You won’t be disappointed.
Ø Max Landis actually has four films that should be coming out this year or
next, including the Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy led Victor Frankenstein.
