Review: ‘The American Side,’ a Hard-Boiled Noir Set in Buffalo
"The director, Jenna Ricker, who wrote the script with Mr. Stuhr, has made a cinephile’s movie, a throwback that delights in homages (to “Kiss Me Deadly” and “North by Northwest,” among others) and an off-kilter sense of period (Charlie is never shown using a cellphone). If the self-consciousness can be charming, it also prevents “The American Side” from becoming fully its own film. The movie plays like an exercise for the cast members, who labor with the stylized dialogue, and for an audience flattered at catching a reference.
Still, “The American Side” shows glimmers of ingenuity, both with its use of Tesla mystique and with atmospheric location work that makes Buffalo a presence. The title refers to the American side of Niagara Falls. To paraphrase a line from Mr. Forster, that’s the one you don’t want to roll down in a barrel."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/29/movie ... eview.html
And it features Janeane Garofalo.
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