But Mike’s troubled home life and a tempestuous relationship with Jake, his best friend from high school, threaten to intrude on what had promised to be an idyllic R&R. And Cristina’s immigrant family – she’s Mexican-American, Mike’s black – has other plans for her that don’t include a 96-hour love affair with a Marine about to ship off to parts unknown…but whatever. Mike’s nineteen, and after six months of grueling training he wants nothing but good times. So he jumps headlong into four days of wild parties, fights, joy, anger and tenderness, trying to savor his first true love and final moments of freedom without the infringement of responsibility. Through it all, though, Mike harbors a troubling secret, and soon discovers that grown-up reality has a way of trumping youthful illusions – and that the war at home can be just as perilous as the one that looms like a bad dream ten thousand miles away.
Fresh, vital and unflinchingly true, AMERICAN SON is not just Mike’s story. It is the story of every American son, a fast and furious trip into the bruised heart of a nation, right now, and a vital snapshot of what happens when youthful passion, idealism and thwarted dreams collide.
Film Festivals
Sundance Film Festival 2008, Nominated, Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic
Deauville American Film Festival, Feature competition
Los Angeles Film Festival, Feature competition
BAM Film Festival
Miramax Films
IMDB Information
FILM REVIEWS
Hollywood Reporter
Bottom Line: Heart-wrenching story of an Iraq-bound U.S. Marine.
This picture was saluted with a warm audience reception at Sundance.
Sundance Film Festival PARK CITY — No fortunate son, this U.S. Marine is one of the unheralded grunts soon to be sent to Iraq. It is a sobering depiction of the hard background that many of our front-line soldiers shoulder. Stirringly told, “American Son” dramatizes a harsh social reality and tributes this nation’s fighting force. Fittingly, it was saluted with a warm audience reception at Sundance. With a documentarylike structure, this sharp drama focuses on a Marine’s 96-hour liberty. On leave for Thanksgiving from Camp Pendleton, Pvt. Mike Holland (Nick Cannon) Greyhounds to a much-needed R&R at his home in Bakersfield. Getting into the spirit, Mike connects with an attractive fellow traveler, Cristina (Melonie Diaz), who also lives in Bakersfield. Mike sets her in his sights for the long weekend, realizing there might be resistance — he is black, she is Latino. But rest and relaxation are not the operative words for Mike’s home life and environment: His older brother is a druggie on the way to his third strike, his father is a distant bad apple, and his best friend is an out-of-control pusher.
Yearning for a restorative, romantic weekend, Mike is ambushed by family uncertainties and friends’ resentments. He gets little respect for his enlistment, rejected by those who begrudge him his ambition to better himself. He also harbors a frightening secret: He’s headed out to Iraq.
Keenly depicting personal challenges that many of our enlisted soldiers must endure, “American Son” reverberates with its blunt insights into Mike’s situation; he is putting himself on the line for family and friends who belittle his integrity or ridicule his pride. Screenwriters Neil Abramson and Eric Schmid rivet us to Mike’s world and inspire our appreciation for him. Interspersing romance, teenage misadventure and family hardship, “American Son” inspires emotions that a documentary film on the same subject matter would be hard-pressed to duplicate. A front-and-center medal to Abramson for his exemplary direction, distilling a representative story though the power of the personal scope.
As the most honorable young Marine, Cannon exudes a confident charm and a steely will. It’s a terrific and sympathetic performance. Diaz blends uncertainty with passion as Mike’s new girlfriend, while Matt O’Leary is aptly frightening as his hell-raising buddy.
Under Abramson’s caring hand, technical contributions are inspection-perfect. A deserved salute to cinematographer Kris Kachikis’ sharp scopings and editor Karen Schmeer’s crisp cuts.
- Duane Byrge
x x x
Variety
Nick Cannon stars as a 19 year-old Marine about to embark on his first duty in Iraq.
Anchored by a solid performance from Nick Cannon, an eye for cross-cultural nuance and a mood of persuasively inhabited sadness, “American Son” is a sturdy, affecting portrait of a young man struggling to make peace with his relationships – and begin a new one – on the eve of his deployment to Iraq. This is conventional dramatic material is sculpted with care and quiet assurance by helmer Neil Abramson. Mike Holland (Cannon) is a 19-year-old black Marine on his way home from Camp Pendleton for four days of Thanksgiving leave before he has to report for his first tour of duty in Iraq. On the bus, he meets Cristina (Melonie Diaz), a comely Mexican-American teen and fellow Bakersfield, Calif., native; their casual flirtation is enough to leave Mike thoroughly smitten and determined to see her again.
Back at home, Mike reconnects with his adoring younger sister (Erica Gluck), deeply spiritual mother (April Grace) and reserved stepdad (Tom Sizemore), but his inability to tell anyone where he’s headed suggests deeper emotional rifts and ambivalence about his decision. With regular intertitles counting down the hours until his imminent departure, Mike seeks to spend every moment he can with Cristina while putting up with the rowdy antics of best bud Jake (Matt O’Leary), who’s quick to vent his anger when it becomes clear their friendship ain’t what it used to be.
There are moments when “American Soldier” bites off more than it can chew, but to their credit, the filmmakers are less interested in cramming their story with melodramatic incident than in piecing together a rounded portrait of Mike in 96 hours (and less than 90 minutes of screentime). Even Mike’s fleeting encounters – his brief reunion with his estranged dad (beautifully played by Chi McBride), which leads to an even briefer reunion with his ne’er-do-well older brother – drop subtle, telling points about how Mike became the uncertain but deeply principled young man he is.
Eric Schmid’s screenplay (from a story he conceived with Abramson) impresses with its ear for both the coarse, sexual banter of teenage males and the lovely, awkward conversational rhythms of young love. Pic’s take on race relations – i.e., the polite distrust with which Cristina’s family reacts to her new boyfriend – is especially delicate, dovetailing nicely with the film’s snapshot of a diverse Bakersfield community.
Cannon carries the picture with an uncharacteristically restrained turn that allows him to retain his easy sense of humor. But South African-born helmer Abramson (”Defining Maggie,” “Without Air”) draws strong perfs all around: Diaz is fine as the somewhat underwritten, slightly idealized love interest, and O’Leary makes a powerfully volatile impression as Mike’s strung-out friend, who can’t keep a lid on his feelings of anger and betrayal.
Mike’s meeting with a disabled Iraq vet (a fine Jay Hernandez) reps the only hint of a political dimension in the film, feeling slightly forced even as it underlines the toll of the Iraq War on minorities in particular. Pic concludes on a simple, resonant and open-ended note.
“American Son” was shot primarily on location in Bakersfield, whose sun-bleached exteriors are ably captured by Kristian Kachikis’ handheld camerawork.
- Justin Chang
x x x
Cinematical
You’d be excused for feeling skeptical about Nick Cannon appearing in a serious drama about a Marine about to be shipped off to Iraq. And if knowing it’s from Neil Abramson – director of the Jerry Springer trainwreck Ringmaster – turns you off altogether, well, no one will blame you.
But American Son is blessed with a powerful, honest screenplay by first-timer Eric Schmid, and Cannon – who has always been charismatic, if nothing else – displays a remarkable talent for drama. Abramson has done some documentary work since Ringmaster (a film that I assume he’s embarrassed about, too), and that eye for real human drama helps make American Son a compelling picture.
Cannon plays Mike Holland, a Bakersfield, Calif., kid who has a 96-hour leave from Camp Pendleton before being deployed to Iraq – except he’s not telling anyone that Iraq is where he’s going. He’s not ready to face that truth himself yet, much less confess it to his family and friends back in “Bako,” as they call it.
The film periodically reminds us how many of Mike’s 96 hours are left, a sort of doomsday clock that helps us share in Mike’s slow-burning panic. He has only four days in which to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family, reconnect with his high school buddies, and find some solace and relaxation with Cristina (Melonie Diaz), a Latina he met on the bus ride home. Since she’s new to his life, she doesn’t have any expectations of how he’s supposed to act, which is a major relief to a guy in his situation.
Bakersfield is portrayed (accurately, in my limited experience) as a barren, desolate city, perfectly befitting the bleakness of Mike’s frame of mind. What’s more, the situation should feel familiar to anyone who’s ever gone home only to find that nothing has changed. Mike hangs out with his regular buddies, none of whom are going anywhere or doing anything, still drinking beer and smoking weed every night. His best friend, a white gangsta named Jake (Matt O’Leary), even resents him a little for doing something with his life. When it comes out that doing something with his life might mean getting killed in battle, the pain gets even deeper.
Cannon’s performance is noteworthy for being loose and informal – he never seems to be “acting” – while clearly being the work of careful rehearsal. He strikes the right tone in every scene, cavalier in one, terrified in the next. A sequence with an injured Marine (Jay Hernandez) living in Cristina’s neighborhood is surprisingly emotional, and a near-perfect representation of the macho but sensitive bonds forged by military service.
There are nice realistic touches everywhere, from Chi McBride’s performance as Mike’s deadbeat father to Tom Sizemore as his unsure stepfather. Most of all, you sense Mike’s despair over not being able to make these 96 hours a perfect send-off for him. The film is 100 percent apolitical, with no mention of the rightness or wrongness of the specific war that Mike is being sent to fight. The point is that he’s somebody’s son, brother, and friend, and he’s going to war.
- Eric D. Snider