Americana (2023) review

Multiple individuals living in the Midwest 'come together' over a rare and valuable "ghost shirt" from the Lakota, which was thought to have the ability to stop bullets: Dillon (Eric Dane) is hired by Roy Lee Dean (Simon Rex) to swipe it from wealthy Pendleton (Toby Huss), Dillon's girlfriend Mandy Starr (Halsey) takes it from him, oddball "couple" Lefty (Paul Walter Hauser) and waitress Penny Jo (Sydney Sweeney) want the item for the cash, actual Native American Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon) and his tribe feel the shirt belongs to them and Mandy's brother (or is it son?) Cal (Gavin Maddox Bergman) keeps telling everyone he's the reincarnation of Sitting Bull.  Since it's unclear what kind of message director Tost is trying to convey here regarding the genocide of indigenous people - perhaps that the "white man" still can't resist stealing from them to this very day? - and the movie itself is needlessly belabored (and concludes with a stretched-out "shootout" sequence), all that's left to keep it remotely watchable is the cast itself: Sweeney's stammer is believable, and Jersey's own Halsey is awesome as a Joan Jett-like punk who has a fascist father.  Tost has spent a good deal of time working in television, and I couldn't help but wonder if this is a little too ambitious a project for his feature debut....