Year: 2015
Directed by: Nima Nourizadeh
Written by: Max Landis
Small-town stoner Mike Howell has no clue he actually has been trained by CIA to be a lethal killing machine, until he's targeted to be eliminated.
I saw a few GIFs and screen-caps of the trailer for American Ultra when it came out. It seemed amazing, but unfortunately it wasn't shown in local theatres so I had to wait until it was published on a DVD so I could rent it.
This movie takes the audience with it from the first scene. It's well shot, and it's interesting. The first scene is chronologically speaking closer to the end, and those kind of beginnings are always interesting, if they are of course written well. We know where the character or characters are going to be, but how do they get there? It's an excellent way to start a film. It's risky in it's way, but if it's written and shot well, it's 100 % effective.
I love the story of this film. Of course it's stupid in it's way, come on, it's an action comedy. Usually you can't expect a lot from an action comedy. But while the story of American Ultra is absurd, filled with conspiracies and experiments and secret identities, it has some weirdly, almost sadly serious moments. And yeah, the idea of this story - a guy who thought he was normal verging on boring is actually some weird experiment - has been used over and over again, but American Ultra gives it something else. The characters are different from the typical archetypes of this kind of story. For example, Mike is a useless stoner. Not even a guy who has a regular boring job but who feels out of place, no. Mike is someone who is definitely useless and hasn't done anything. He's worse than the average hero in these stories before the hero realises what he really is.
And while the characters of this story are interesting, the cast is even more interesting. Jesse Eisenberg doesn't look like an action film hero, he looks like a nerd yet he rocks this part surprisingly well. And Topher Grace (who I mostly remember from That 70's Show) as a weird CIA villain? Who thought that would work? And who else was in this, Tony Hale (Arrested Development) and Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight) and Kristen Stewart, who I never dreamed to see in a film like this, but oh my god this genre suits her... This ensemble is unbelievable, it's like they just chose random actors and actresses from whatever movies and shows and threw them into a same project. And they all work so very well together. Weird casts are a thing that makes a film even more interesting, and had I known about the cast (other than Eisenberg and Stewart) I would've been even more interested in this film.
Yesterday someone asked me to describe my aesthetic, and almost everything I mentioned was in this movie. This movie may be bloody and violent, but it is visually very good. It looks astonishing all the time, no matter how gruesome it might be. And the soundtrack, oh, it's on Spotify. It's not special, it's pretty regular, but it is enjoyable to listen to.
I liked American Ultra just as much as I thought I would. It has everything I look for a movie: comedy with weird deep moments, violence and adrenaline, interesting characters, amazing cinematography and a ridiculous plot that shouldn't work but somehow they made it work. I just wish American Ultra won't be forgotten, even if its genre suggests that it might be. This film has potential to be some kind of cult classic.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
10 / 10
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