Halsey Steals the Show in Modern Western Film ‘Americana,’ Also Starring Sydney Sweeney and Eric Dane

In this zany Western caper, Mandy (Halsey), plays a down-and-out woman living in a double-wide with an abusive boyfriend, Dillon (Eric Dane), near a reservation in South Dakota. After Dillon steals a Ghost Shirt, a sacred Lakota Indian artifact, Mandy conks him on the head and steals the valuable garment, convinced it’ll pay for her ticket out of town.

But she’s not the only one with dreams of a new life — Penny Joe (Sydney Sweeney, playing against type as a mousy waitress at the local diner), recruits a lonely rancher (Paul Walter Hauser) to help her steal the stolen shirt from Mandy to finance her ambition of making it big in Nashville.

But then Mandy’s young son, Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman), who’s so obsessed with Native American culture he’s convinced he’s the reincarnation of Sitting Bull, alerts two thugs from the local tribe, Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon) and Hank Spears (Derek Hinkey) about the theft of their tribal treasure and they also join the chase.

But the biggest robbery is committed by Halsey, who in her first major movie role steals the show with her poignant but madcap performance, which only escalates the hilarious Tarantino-esque high jinks of the thieves thieving from thieves. The novel characters and convoluted plot make Americana worth seeing at the cineplex.

Americana | In theaters Friday, Aug. 15 R