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Amerikatsi Movie Review

Amerikatsi is a 2023 Armenian drama film directed by and starring Michael A. Goorjian. It’s a very lackluster movie.

Charlie escapes the Armenian genocide as a boy by fleeing to the United States, but he returns as an adult and is arrested. He watches an Armenian couple from his prison cell, finally learning about his homeland. I did not care for this movie for a couple of reasons, the prime one being that it’s pretty much a rip-off of ‘Life Is Beautiful’.

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Just as that famous film was tonally rather comedic, Amerikatsi also is overly optimistic, amusing and at times genuinely off-putting in that overly naïve outlook on life that uneasily mixed with the movie’s very dark story at its core. This is a story where the protagonist is imprisoned throughout, and yet the tone is consistently joyous and warm. It just doesn’t work.

Another issue is that highly manipulative approach that Goorjian employed here in terms of storytelling choices where his protagonist is Armenian-American, thus that clash in cultures was an obvious move to be recognized by the Academy. It will probably work, but for me it felt very obvious.

And I simply did not care for the main character. I found him to be insufferably naïve, overly goofy and at times frustratingly obnoxious. Watching his wide-eyed expressions quickly grew tiresome. This was a vanity project for Michael A. Goorjian as he both directed and performed in this project, but he did not deliver on either front, though faring a bit better in the acting department.

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Amerikatsi is very well made in terms of technical aspects. The cinematography, score and editing are all pretty good and the acting performances are fine. There are some amusing moments to be had here for sure and also some uplifting ones, but for the most part the tone was overly chirpy and the lack of dialogue throughout was bothersome too as it led to a far from engaging movie.