America Brown

America BROWN is one of those little Indie films that creeps up on you and despite the technical flaws and obvious low budget milieu makes a solid impact as a bit a Americana worth visiting.

America Brown aka Ricky Brown (Ryan Kwanten) is a high school senior who happens to be a football star in his tiny West Texas town where Bo (Leo Burmester) and Coach (Frankie Faison) have pinned there efforts to break into the big time in football if Ricky fulfills his expectations. Ricky lives with his beautician mother (Karen Black) whose strident husband is dead and whose oldest son Daniel (Michael Rapaport) recently died from a heart attack. Ricky needs to breathe and escapes to Brooklyn where he traces down his personal hero, former football Texas star John Cross (Hill Harper) who has become a Catholic priest but has secrets of his own. John takes in Ricky, and Ricky begins to discover the world outside of Texas, loses his virginity to a diner waitress Vera (Natasha Lyonne) and befriends Rosie (Élodie Bouchez), whose attachment to John Cross seems to have some undercurrents. Ricky is all innocence and beautiful youth as he walks the streets of New York in his jeans, cowboy clothes and Stetson - reminiscent of Midnight Cowboy. But as his mind is exposed to the world outside Texas and football he comes to grips with a recurring unbearable nightmare: he feels responsible for his brother Daniel's death. Ricky ultimately returns to his hometown, to his loving mother, and to football, faces his demons, and learns the meaning of becoming a man.

Young Australian actor Ryan Kwanten, complete with authentic Texan twang, creates a character impossible not to love. His mixture of optimism, naiveté, and inner torture is a fine portrayal of a gifted sportsman challenging what his world expects of him. The remainder of the cast is likewise very fine. London born, Canadian writer/director Paul Black gifts us with his first feature film here and he seems to have all of the makings of a truly fine artist. Watch for his future work! Recommended. Grady Harp

OK, maybe that's a bit harsh to compare this to brown (toilet) water, but this really is a tedious little film masquerading as serious Americana/Indie movie-making. It doesn't contain one memorable image or one memorable piece of dialogue. In fact, it is instantly forgettable.

America Brown (sic) is a stetson wearing Texan boy who charms in a Jon Voigt-Lite way as he runs away from his ranch home to the Big Apple in search of his hero, an ex-football star from college and to find the answers to his brother's recent death (ooh, wonder how that happened???). His hero is now a priest hiding an illicit affair with Elodie Bouchez who gets to say things like 'Quoi' and 'Bon Chance' because she's French you know (yawn) but unfortunately she's as wooden as a stale baguette. Brown then falls for the scary charms of vampiric waitress Natasha Lyonne, all white skin, garish red lips and ginger hair. How many times are filmmakers going to write about drifters coming into a new town and instantly finding a girlfriend at their first port of call.

Like I said, its all very dull, shot with zero-flair like a TV Soap and edited with annoying and deeply dated jump-cuts to raise the slightest tension. Director Paul Black apparently took the best part of a decade to write this. That doesn't tell us that he's dedicated, it tells us that this man cannot write, because there is nothing taxing here that could not be knocked out in 6 weeks. By its end, you don't care about any of the characters. And you forget about them in a heartbeat.

2 out of 10 - 1 for Natasha Lyonne who is always watchable and 1 for Karen Black because she once used to work on scripts like Five Easy Pieces and she must despair getting something like this now.

From a psychological perspective, this film really works. The main character, Ricky Brown, seems to be suffering from PTSD. He cracked under the pressure of being a star football player in Texas high school. Something went horribly wrong and now he's on the run, from himself. What he seems to discover in New York is that he will always be wherever he goes. The people he meets along the way each have a therapeutic effect on him, and when the bad boys from Texas close in, the full force of his traumatic stress disorder comes hurtling forward into his consciousness, with great effect I might add. Ryan Kwanten is fabulous.

It's not a perfect film, and lucky for Paul Black it hasn't been lauded as one. The risk of complacency is too strong for many young filmmakers who have hit the jackpot their first time at it. But in this current climate of films without feelings, or films that must try too hard to elicit some emotion, here is a film that gives us a taste of humanity that is real and touching. Congratulations.

I rented this film because I'm a fan of Natasha Lyonne. I honestly wasn't too interested in the dramatic theme at first. Once I put the DVD in and first saw the menu screen (with scenes from the film running) I had a good feeling about the potential. I very quickly got absorbed in the story and the underlying emotion in the main characters. It is a bit roughly edited. There are times you hear voices, and it's not obvious that it is a flashback. This can be a bit confusing, but not to the point where you lose interest in the interaction between the characters. All of the actors do a great job of quietly harboring their complicated emotions, and eventually releasing and making some measure of peace. Natasha is very much as attractive as usual, and plays a character that seems to have some unspoken issues of her own. And the film leaves you contemplating the possibilities of the futures of all the characters involved. It is an inspired work that I think is worth seeing, especially if you appreciate a coming of age story or stories of personal growth and realization.

This is one of those films that lets you breath. It lets you experience the moments.

I'm a big fan of story and content, and America Brown has them both. This story driven film made me laugh, cry and think. The character development is a wonderful journey. You will know and love the main characters.

It's nice to see fresh new talent that heightens the movie experience. Paul Black, writer/director, is brilliant! He brings together a remarkable cast that walks you through raw emotion.

I recommend you watch America Brown at least two times to get everything it offers. I highly recommend seeing this film.