American Ultra review

“American Ultra” is a moody action-dramedy that attempts a difficult balancing act between tone and genre expectation. Not only does it showcase two somewhat misunderstood actors in Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as the leads—rekindling their indie-romance appeal from “Adventureland”—but it also wants to be taken seriously as a savage action-thriller and a hysterical satire.  The fact that it manages to hit these disparate targets fifty percent of the time speaks to the strength of Max Landis’ overly ambitious script and the earnestness of Eisenberg and Stewart’s slightly out-of-tune performances.

Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a nervous stoner who’s in love with his layabout girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart), but can’t stomach the commitment it takes to move even slightly forward with their relationship.  After purposely postponing the vacation where he planned to pop the question, a mysterious woman approaches the counter of the convenience store where he works and activates a code in Mike’s brain that reveals years of spy training he received before having his mind wiped by the government. This proves to become helpful because, as it turns out, he’s been declared classified evidence of a failed program by the CIA.  As he’s being hunted down by psychotic operatives, and the media is covering up the trail of bodies behind him, he’s left with only his wits and his untapped physical skills to protect himself and his lover.

Like Landis’ debut screenplay “Chronicle,” this is a genre movie that deconstructs the tropes of genre movies through the ironic lens of millennial pop-culture curation. The way the plot is set up and moves forward is clearly drawing on video game mechanics, that’s complete with boss-battles and a princess to save at the end. The classic reluctant hero’s journey, combined with a Kevin-Smith-y smirkiness about the story tradition in which it’s engaging, speaks to Landis’ knowledge and appreciation of post-modern, alternative comic book meta-narratives.  All of this is interesting and plays out in surprising bursts of violence and scenes of real emotional weight, but never in a way that feels fully intergraded or cohesive.

Director Nima Nourizadeh, who previously helmed the teenage party movie “Project X,” is out of sync with the complicated material and the motivations of his actors. Nourizadeh is clearly making a darker action film with brutal fight choreography, the script is concerned with the nuance of the genre and the actors are concerned with the relatability of their performances. With three distinct drivers behind the wheel, the comedy and the satire that should have moved things along, was left on the side of the road and out of breath to keep up with the competing tones of the film.

John Leguizamo as a tweaked out drug dealer who has a neon basement and a rocker van is perhaps the only performer in the cast who understands what movie he’s actually in. Topher Grace as the CIA, yuppie bad-guy is tuned so unpleasant and mean-spirited that he comes off as genuinely hateful and shrill in way that better direction and editing should have protected him from stepping into.

Whether you love it or hate it, or are simply too confused to commit to an opinion, “American Ultra” is an original curiosity in which the things about it that are most compelling are very things that are obstructing its success as a movie. The central love story and emotions behind the film are surprisingly sensitive and effecting but ultimately exhausted in mitigating the heavy-metal direction and the screenplay’s allusive attitude.

Grade: C

Originally Published in the Idaho State Journal/Sep-2015