Film Review: American Night (2021) Dir. Alessio Della Valle
There are some good reasons for seeing this neo-noir crime caper set in NYC’s smugly corrupt contemporary art world which brings together John Kaplan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), a gallery owner and expert forger, and Michael Rubino (Emile Hirsch), the newly-anointed head of the Rubino crime family. Let’s face it, there is a lot of delicious source material and Della Valle has mined it and really packed in the art world “types” as well as the mobsters.
He has assembled a great-looking cast, dressed in the coolest clothes. The women are beautiful and sexy. The sets are relentlessly hip and the cinematography swoops around the action as if operated by a drone. The action is fast-paced and explosive. There are a lot of violent scenes involving assassins spraying bullets using semi-automatic rifles, brilliant car chases and crashes,blown up buildings, and all manner of anarchic behavior. It feels like Quintan Tarantino overkill. Lots of blood and gore filmed beautifully. There is an amazing sex/art scene between Kaplan and Sarah (Paz Vega), his girlfriend and curator. They pour paint all over themselves while having sex on a canvas. It looks like fun.
The premise for all of this action is the reappearance of an Andy Warhol portrait of “Pink Marilyn” which had been stolen from Michael Rubino some years ago. Michael cares more about retrieving this painting than running the family “business”. Michael, a frustrated artist, is supporting the Kaplan gallery which is barely hanging on and which compels John Kaplan to get involved with the ransom of “Pink Marilyn” which is being handled like a kidnapping. There are many back stories revealed in flashbacks which are cleverly constructed but they don’t reveal enough about the characters for us to particularly care about them. They remain one dimensional stereotypes. If my life depended on it I do not believe that I could provide a plot summary of what is going on except to say that nobody can trust anyone. And anyway, nearly everyone either gets shot or blown up. Yet, it is full of visual allure which can make up for it’s narrative deficiencies.
Written by: Belle McIntyre
Photo Editor: Kahdeem Prosper Jefferson
