American Made is an adequately-made, wholly unoriginal film. The film continuously emphasizes how its story is about to get “really crazy”, yet such outrageousness turns out to be nothing more than worn out concepts from previously-made films and shows. As such, American Made’s constant efforts to astonish its audience with over-the-top, yet unremarkable material quickly becomes tedious and stale. The film’s cinematic style would have been distinct had films such as American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short, and War Dogs not already exhausted the style’s freshness. What American Made could have really used was less pizazz and more focus on character, as they all come across as trope fitters going through the designated actions rather than three-dimensional humans. American Made is not a poorly-made film, but it lacks any innovation and originality to stand out as anything more than mild entertainment.
Ingrid Goes West:
Ingrid is unstable, self-centered, obsessive, and borderline-psychotic—she’s also an oddly endearing character. Ingrid Goes West does a very good job at making its demented protagonist (played by Aubrey Plaza) both likable and sympathetic. The film achieves this through three methods. The first is making Ingrid’s “victims” less than stellar beings. The people Ingrid stalk have their own share of faults and obnoxious to downright loathsome traits, making it difficult to feel sympathy for them. Then there is Ingrid’s approach to stalking: an array of humorously awkward and deviously clumsy attempts at getting what she wants. It’s hard to hate a character when their sinister plots continuously backfire in comedic fashion.
Then there’s Ingrid herself, who’s arguably more tragic than her victims. The unstable woman is a lonely person looking for love after her mother, aka best friend’s untimely death. The problem is Ingrid looks for love in all the wrong places—obsessing over her social media status and clinging to the first person she believes is “perfect” and gives her the smallest display of attention. For Ingrid, popularity equals love, and it’s such mindset that blinds her from the people who genuinely care about her (though deep down Ingrid is aware of this). The film’s final scene deceptively plays off as an upbeat finale, but is actually a tragic ending for Ingrid—the woman getting caught once more in the web of social popularity, unintentionally caused by the one person who actually cares for her. Ingrid Goes West is a well-made tragicomedy that effectively makes its unhinged protagonist an endearing character.
Then there’s Ingrid herself, who’s arguably more tragic than her victims. The unstable woman is a lonely person looking for love after her mother, aka best friend’s untimely death. The problem is Ingrid looks for love in all the wrong places—obsessing over her social media status and clinging to the first person she believes is “perfect” and gives her the smallest display of attention. For Ingrid, popularity equals love, and it’s such mindset that blinds her from the people who genuinely care about her (though deep down Ingrid is aware of this). The film’s final scene deceptively plays off as an upbeat finale, but is actually a tragic ending for Ingrid—the woman getting caught once more in the web of social popularity, unintentionally caused by the one person who actually cares for her. Ingrid Goes West is a well-made tragicomedy that effectively makes its unhinged protagonist an endearing character.
