The lure of the cinematic pairing encompasses both the familiar and the novel. Witnessing actors already proven to bounce off of each other well reteam comes with certain pleasures, while watching an off-kilter match of tales, styles and genres within the same package can as well. American Ultra attempts both feats, reuniting stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg after 2009’s slacker comedy Adventureland, and making a marriage out of stoner and spy films that few might have thought was necessary. Branding the final product a mixed bag is too easy a categorisation, though the movie does take the good with the bad and its successes with its failures.
In the sleepy town of Liman, West Virginia, Mike Howell (Eisenberg, Louder Than Bombs) spends his days in a drug-fuelled haze either hanging out with his girlfriend, Phoebe (Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria), or working as a cashier in a roadside convenience store. He considers himself the quicksand to her smarts and skills, his low self-esteem and panic attacks leaving them stuck in a routine that only something extraordinary could break. That unlikely event comes not in the form of his intended marriage proposal, but in a plot to kill him. Unbeknownst to Mike, he’s a deprogrammed CIA assassin who once aced a top-secret project under one government operative’s (Connie Britton, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) watch, and is now a target for eradication by her successor (Topher Grace, Interstellar).
As can be anticipated by an effort that mashes up as many slivers of story, mood and approach as it can, the ghosts of movies gone by haunt American Ultra; however in director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and writer Max Landis’ (Chronicle) hands, that seems less like filmmaking laziness or chaos, and more like a concerted — albeit sometimes clumsily executed — choice. Obvious candidates in both the pot-smoking and espionage factions emerge, influencing everything from Eisenberg’s mumbling delivery to the many fight scenes — and yet, in favouring amorousness as the narrative’s cohesive device, it perhaps most strongly recalls 1993’s True Romance.
A solid updating of the Tony Scott-helmed, Quentin Tarantino-scribed effort, this is not, though it does ape the action-romance offering’s spirit amidst its absurdist plot wanderings. The ultra in the title could be followed by violence, for much of it fills the film’s frames as a new batch of trained and controlled operatives attempt to eradicate the lowly clerk, yet nary does a moment pass in which sweetness doesn’t resonate. Mike’s awakening to his true status keeps the movie moving, but his feelings for Phoebe are his — and the feature’s — real motivation. The combination of overt sentiment and fast-paced, frenetically choreographed spectacle that results doesn’t always work, yet it doesn’t always miss its targets, either.
Indeed, American Ultra‘s main message is about self-belief and trust as much as it is about love, as directed towards following rather than hiding from your own instincts over blindly adhering to bureaucracy. It’s a thoughtful statement, though one tempered by a tongue-in-cheek aesthetic attitude that only intermittently works in its favour. Often, the excess that hampered Nourizadeh’s last effort — among Project X‘s many other issues — is all too apparent. His penchant for looking down, as shot sleekly by cinematographer Michael Bonvillain (TV’s From Dusk Till Dawn), becomes repetitive, though thankfully energetic editing by Andrew Marcus (Begin Again) and Bill Pankow (Let’s Be Cops) attempts to offer a counterbalance.
If the amalgam aimed for in the mixtape of genres and sources of inspiration sometimes plays static rather than something melodious, even with good intentions, the film’s other pairing is in tune. Their characters may be slight, as is everyone who pops up (brief, plot-servicing appearances by Justified‘s Walton Goggins, John Wick‘s John Leguizamo, The Equalizer‘s Bill Pullman and Veep‘s Tony Hale included), but Eisenberg and Stewart boast ample, essential, film-saving chemistry. The earnestness their anti-comic performances shimmer with is the grounding component American Ultra needs. When the movie around them gives in to outlandishness, it becomes both disposable and diverting; when it favours the sincere end of its spectrum, it flirts with the same effectiveness shown by its leads.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
American Ultra
Director: Nima Nourizadeh
USA, 2015, 96 mins
Release date: 3 September
Distributor: Roadshow
Rated: MA
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