Synopsis
A real estate agent from Paris arrives in Los Angeles to settle his late mother's estate, but a found photograph sends him on an impromptu journey to Mexico to find a woman named Lola.
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Cast
- Salma Hayek Pinault'Lola'
- Mathieu DemyMartin
- Geraldine ChaplinLinda
- Chiara MastroianniClaire
- Carlos BardemLuis
- Jean-Pierre MockyLe père
- André WilmsL'Allemand
- Sabine MamouLa mère (archive footage)
- Timothy DavisLe douanier
- Cokey FalkowLe facteur
Recommendations
- 70
Variety
Though Demy's approach breaks no new ground, directorially speaking, Martin's personal journey finds a fresh angle on a universal piece of wisdom. Every mother's son believes he's the star of his own life; Americano captures that humbling moment where one realizes perhaps he has only been a bit player in his parents' story, not the star, as initially believed. - 70
The New York Times
Though not explicitly autobiographical, this film is deeply personal, and while the nature of cinema is very much on its mind, it rarely feels insular or self-conscious. Instead, it is wistful and nostalgic, and at the same time full of restless curiosity. - 63
New York Post
The film's first half has a lovely feel for how bizarre California must seem to foreigners, and there's a piercing sense of the stop-and-start ways that people deal with grief. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
The primary appeal of Americano lies in witnessing the attempt of a famous progeny to forge his own creative path, as Demy's struggle with artistic inheritance resonates throughout unmoored Martin's voyage between past and present. - 50
Village Voice
Americano, which Demy also wrote and stars in, is an ambivalent, occasionally touching work of homage to his parents, yet one whose clumsiness only underscores the superiority of their directly quoted films. - 50
The A.V. Club
Peel away the many layers of reference, and all that's left of Americano is the raw need of a lonely, confused young man who's distant from his family, awash in vague memories, and struggling to find himself. This is less a movie than a patient for pop psychologists. - 40
Time Out
Becomes a clumsy gringo approximation of something else. In this case, it's the old respectable-man-obsessed-with-fallen-angel cliché, which Demy fils tweaks with broad melodramatic strokes and Freudian flotsam, as well as a complete lack of focus or storytelling chops. - 40
New York Daily News
Scenes of the director as a school-age boy in a Varda film are haunting, but end up simply sparking a desire to see Varda's work.
