Movie Review: The American Side

4 stars out of 5

Spare and gritty, The American Side is modern noir with a sharp comic twist. It stars Greg Stuhr, and you might be asking yourself, “Who is Greg Stuhr?” What, you weren’t hanging around Carnegie Mellon University during the turn of the ’90s? Well, I was; what’s wrong with you? Since then, Stuhr has pieced together a solid acting résumé, with many appearances in film, television, and Broadway. But Stuhr’s compelling lead performance in The American Side should certainly raise his profile.

Stuhr plays Charlie Paczynski, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Charlie still uses a payphone, drives a Dodge Dart Swinger, and wears knockoff Aviator shades, a knockoff Members Only jacket, and the most horrid tie-shirt combos on the American or any other side. Soon, this watcher is being watched, and Paczynski finds himself embroiled in a murder-and-technology mystery well above his pay grade. Stuhr never allows the character to become a cliché; he fills Paczynski with humanity and we’re willing to follow him anywhere.

Also helping set the film apart from other thrillers, The American Side is loaded with humor. But it never becomes a spoof, and the movie never has to stop dead in its tracks for “Yippe-ki-yay”-style catchphrases. Instead, the jokes (Paczynkski: “You had me at death ray,” etc. etc.) are carefully woven into the script, which Stuhr co-wrote with the movie’s director, Jenna Ricker.

Stuhr is joined by a very impressive supporting cast. Matthew Broderick is wonderfully nasty as a tech-energy zillionaire, the type who will smile as he sticks a switchblade into your ribs. (Broderick’s character compares Paczynski to Philip Marlowe, but the P.I. says he prefers Mike Hammer. “Even your idols are second-rate,” Broderick sniffs.) The great Robert Forster is an old-school, down-to-earth energy baron—but maybe he can’t be trusted either. Janeane Garofalo shows up to provide some exposition about Nikola Testa; one of his revolutionary ahead-of-his-time designs has been stolen and people are literally dying to get it back. Good to see Miles Silverberg a.k.a. Grant Shaud as a sad-sack client of Paczynski who becomes surprisingly helpful. The legendary Robert Vaughn is only in one scene but makes the most of it, as a hilarious aging-playboy yenta.

Lesser-known actors also impress in The American Side. Camilla Belle has an Anne Hathaway quality to her; innocent but seductive and maybe not all that innocent in the first place. You might think Alicja Bachleda is too stunningly beautiful to play a Carnegie Mellon (yup, Stuhr honoring his roots) engineering nerd, but she pulls it off with subtlety. Recognizable character actors include Harris Yulin (if you’re playing Six Degrees of Greg Stuhr, they were both in the late, great spy series Rubicon), Joe Grifasi, and Stephen Henderson (who you may remember as Sam Waterston’s source on The Newsroom).

There’s another wonderful lead character in this film, and that’s the city of Buffalo. Director Ricker captures its fading Rust Belt beauty, seemingly trapped in an earlier era, just like Paczynski. They’re both underdogs and we’re rooting for them. And wow, Ricker knows how to film the awesome power of Niagara Falls, which gives the movie its name.

Meanwhile, Ricker skillfully builds the drama and intensity. We get nods to classic Seventies TV-and-movie detectives, the rapid-fire dialogue of 40s flicks, and even a bit of Hitchcock (the Tesla plans are a MacGuffin, and there’s a sly salute to North by Northwest). Some viewers may get a little lost in the movie’s who-can-you-trust game, but that’s also part of the fun here. And the most exciting visuals and action sequences are saved for the end, giving the film a very satisfying arc.

Kudos to Ricker and Stuhr for shaking up the genre with smarts and wit. They take a Niagara Falls thriller and slowly turn it, step by step, into something really worth watching.