Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart (Alan Markfield/Lionsgate)
I accepted a bribe this week: a cup of chicken flavored instant noodles cheaply rebranded with a sticker across the thin cardboard packaging that alerts the consumer in 14-point courier that “YOU ARE NOW ARMED AND DANGEROUS.” This cheap lunch swag included the helpful hashtags #AMERICANULTRA and #ULTRANOODLESDC, the latter of which was, as of press time, used only once by all of Twitter.
It may seem like a cute and desperate measure to plug a movie that has gotten unusually bad buzz. I don’t get the hate. A self-describe stoner action comedy, American Ultra follows a seemingly clueless and frequently baked couple in their tormented love life and ultimately violent adventures. But their impaired mental state and institutional exploitation is both a paranoid rant against government surveillance and a scathing indictment of a brainwashed society.
We meet Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) injured and dazed in a police interrogation room, where officers ask how he got to this state. Mike quickly flashes back through images that give us a quick recap of the movie that’s about to unfold, including a frying pan, a bloody spoon, his injured girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), explosions, dead bodies, and noodles. The mayhem starts in Liman, a middle-of-nowhere West Virginia town where Mike and Phoebe live and where he has a job at a rundown convenience store where one of his duties is to change the letters on the signboard in an always-empty parking lot from MONDAY to TUESDAY.
Mike is a self-described fuck-up, but has saved up enough money to buy Phoebe a diamond engagement ring and even plans a romantic trip to Hawaii. But as Phoebe is waiting at the airport for Mike to answer the final boarding call, he’s throwing up in the bathroom, suffering from one of the panic attacks that sets in whenever he tries to leave town. Incredibly, she’s not mad at him, even when they go home and he burns the conciliatory omelet he tries to make her.
Their West Virginia town is soon beset upon by rival government agents (led by Topher Grace and Connie Britton), who battle locals like Rose (a lively-as-usual John Leguizamo), which eventually leads to an explosive set piece of heavily discounted off-brand goods.
The movie has been compared unfavorably to Pineapple Express and the Bourne franchise, none of which I’ve seen, but take away the stoners and secret agent action and what the movie reminds me of most is Miracle Mile, which pits a doomed couple against apocalyptic mayhem.
Trailers and other reviews will likely spell out what makes Mike special, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that the movie’s romantic element, which weighs it down for many of the film’s detractors, actually kind of moves me; that this damaged couple manages to endure in a world where everyone really is out to get them.
Director Nima Nourizadeh last directed the frathouse gross-out comedy Project X, which I previously had no interest in seeing, but I like the casual, deadpan tone he gives to this script by Max Landis (Chronicle).
Mike and Pheobe aren’t particularly interesting characters, but Eisenberg and Stewart invest them with humanity and stoner chemistry, and if you don’t exactly want to be friends with them, you want to see them survive at least the taut 95-minute running time. This is a rare movie that left me wanting (a little) more when it was over, especially with its inventive closing animated sequence. I thoroughly enjoyed American Ultra, under the influence of nothing more than the not-so-illicit drug of Pad Thai.
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American Ultra
Directed by Nima Nourizadeh
Written by Max Landis.
With Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Connie Britton
Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, drug use and some sexual content
Running time 95 minutes
Opens today at a multiplex near you
