Review: American Woman

An irresponsible, hard-living single mum (Sienna Miller, never better) slowly gets her shit together despite relationship issues and a missing teenage daughter (Sky Ferreira) whose own young child Miller is now responsible for in her absence. Pat Healy plays an abusive dick, Aaron Paul plays a nice but flawed interested party, whilst Amy Madigan (surprisingly poor), Christina Hendricks (surprisingly solid), and Will Sasso play Miller’s mother, sister, and brother-in-law respectively.

 

An outstanding Sienna Miller performance is the big plus in this otherwise unsatisfying, clichéd 2019 film from director Jake Scott (son of Ridley, he shot the ‘Disarm’ music video for Smashing Pumpkins). Scripted by Brad Ingelsby (“Out of the Furnace”, “Run All Night”) the film is ultimately about grief and loss, but the way the film plays at times, you’d swear that it was a mystery that will have a clear resolution. It’s not just that I expected something different to what I got, as that blame would fall on me the viewer. Director Scott set me up for that wrong impression by framing a certain actor a certain way that combined with a certain actor’s performance cast them in a suspicious light and drew so much attention to them that I felt I was watching a mystery unfolding. Nope. That’s not the story being told here, it’s just poor filmmaking on Scott’s part in leading you to suspect it.

 

The story that is being told here is less interesting to me than a murder-mystery would’ve been. If you’ve seen “Three Billboards” you’ve seen the same basic idea done far better there. The douchebag boyfriend unconvincingly played by Pat Healy is your standard working class abusive male cliché you’ve seen a hundred times in a hundred movies, many better. I also didn’t like the way the film dealt with the progression of time, it’s quite disorienting at times. The choppy narrative doesn’t quite give us enough sense of how Sienna Miller’s character seems to move up in the world as she does by the end of the film. Pieces seem missing.

 

I’m sure some people will like this character study, particularly women. I found it a disorienting and unsatisfying experience with moments of interest here and there. I liked parts of it but not enough parts and not the whole. Sienna Miller has never been better. She’s spot-on from moment one.

 

Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit too s
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more