Cinema Lounge Reviews

After a famous long lost Andy Warhol painting resurfaces, it starts a violent war between a mafia boss and an art dealer. It takes us through the lives of art dealer John Kaplan and newly assigned mafia boss Michael Rubino and what happened that led to a dangerous battle for one painting.

This quirky and retro adventure from Sky Cinema takes us on a wild adventure with an art dealer who’s facing his own personal battles and a dangerous newly promoted mafia boss. It has a lot to offer depending on how you look at it. It lacks storytelling by constantly changing the film’s dynamic, losing track of where it is although it does spark some potential with its overall theme as it’s something we haven’t seen since the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

It’s hard to comment on a film’s narrative when its storyline is constantly poor as it’s forever switching between different characters’ points of view which might not have been so bad but when it adds time jumps switching from the past. The present all the time then becomes overwhelming for the viewers. On the other hand, if you look more closely, you see a potential for a rich story to come through, which could’ve given American Night that retro 90s film feel to it, which we don’t see very often anymore but unfortunately it was poorly executed.

As well as that, the film also features some enjoyably written characters who are a joy to watch on screen it’s just a shame that these haven’t been given their full potential because of the narrative they have been set in. The character development between the art dealer John Kaplan and mafia boss Michael Rubino is quite prominent and interesting to watch over the course of the film.

Towards the latter stage of the film, it starts to pick up a little and it finally starts to piece the storyline together bit by bit and by end of the film, you’ll understand the story. If you’ve waited this long for some action then you’ll finally be rewarded with an all out gun fight.

Considering what the actors had been given to work with I think that they did an exceptional job of delivering their roles the best they could which was a highlight for me of the film. The overall characters and how they were structured were one of the most enjoyable features of the film for me as they all fitted in perfectly with the theme of American Night.