Review of American Night (2021) by Jrsbear — 06 Oct 2021

Beautiful and Intriguing While this film has its moments of action, it is more of a postmodern mystery than an action/thriller.

This is because the real intrigue in this movie comes from piecing together the clues spread across the film in order to understand what really happened. This requires some patience and so definitely isn't for everyone and is perhaps more for fans of movies like Tenet where you might need to watch a second time or rewind to catch new details. The key is - you must watch to the very end to understand the whole story.

Speaking of details, there are numerous pop art, pop culture, and modern art references of varying obscurity and this is what enables second or third viewings. And while some of the Tarantino references might be too overt (though a nice homage), on the other hand, many other art references are quite obscure, such as the two-tone modern art statues at Michael's house representing the duality of a man outside the film and in the film likely represent the duality/conflict in Michael's life between family honor (tradition) and self-actualization (his art). Also, it took me a while to discover the connection between the song “Heart of Glass” by Blondie used in the dive bar scene and that Andy Warhol had also created pop art prints of Blondie’s singer Debbie Harris.

The film's major traditional strengths lie in the set design, lighting, and cinematography as the visuals are often stunning and the film can be appreciated merely on this level much of the time.

Overall it is an interesting movie to watch. It first appears like a typical Hollywood action movie but has more going for it under the surface as you peel back more subtle artistic references, piece together the narrative clues, reflect on the unexpected postmodern characterizations, and find that it is a piece of pop art in and of itself.