The American (Joika) is nothing new as a biopic, but Talia Ryder sells the sacrifices one has to make for their art.
Writer & Director: James Napier Robertson
Genre: Biopic, Drama
Run Time: 110′
U.S. Release Date: May 17, 2024
U.K. Release Date: May 17, 2024
Where to Watch: on digital and on demand
The American tells the story of Joy Womack, the first American to graduate from the Bolshoi Academy. However, in a presumed marketing push, it has been retitled from its original name, Joika, the Russian version of Womack’s first name. This change actually reflects the changes that Womack had to make to further her own ambitions. As we learn from the film, she sacrificed so much of her own identity to become the great dancer she knew she could be.
Ballet dancers must be frustrated with the depictions of their art in popular culture. The dance is genteel and precious on the surface, but the practice of ballet is punishing, requiring years of training and a great deal of sacrifice. The American captures the pain required to make it in the world of ballet better than any other film on the subject. Every drop of blood and sweat shed in the movie is palpable. The legendary Bolshoi Ballet Academy prides itself on producing the best dancers in the world but, as James Napier Robertson’s film makes clear, this process is an endurance test.
Joy is played by Talia Ryder (The Sweet East), and her combination of a youthful face with a capacity for conveying profound sadness with ease serves her particularly well here. From a sweet prologue showing the 15-year-old Joy in her Texas home ready to head off to big things, we cut to her first day in the Bolshoi. It’s clear from the start that ‘Joika’ could easily be broken by the regime at the Bolshoi.
Under the tutelage of the cuttingly strict Tatiyana (Diane Kruger), Joy is pushed to longer étendres and higher sautés, and all the injuries that result. Writer-director Robertson knows that Ryder is key to selling this pain, and the camera finds it impossible to look away from her in any scene. Ryder walks a fine line between breaking down and fighting back all the way through the film, and it lives or dies on her performance.
Besides stretching her own limitations, Joy has to watch out for possible competition in her classmates, and for distrust from Tatiyana and the school as a whole. Robertson immerses his characters in a paranoid world out of a Le Carré novel. Tomasz Naumiuk’s cinematography and the production design create a cold windblown world of flaking paint and dark corridors everywhere.
Given the solid design and its leading lady, it’s a pity The American can’t summon the courage to be much more than a paint-by-numbers true story. Robertson’s script might tinker with the chronology of some events, but it’s rather toothless in its examination of its subject’s motives. We’re in awe of what she went through, but are never invited to question the wisdom of her actions. Even when she goes so far as to marry her classmate Nikolay (Russian ballet dancer Oleg Ivenko), it’s all offered as a necessary sacrifice for the art. Joy sinks deeper into despair and pain while striving to be the best, but there’s nothing radical in that story. Even in the context of tense international relations with Russia, there’s nothing novel about Joy Womack’s story as told here.
The American may not hold a lot of surprises, from an artist getting a big break, to letting their workaholism and confidence undermine them, to a fall before redemption. Still, it’s worth seeking out for Ryder’s performance, which will serve as an undoubted stepping stone for her towards even bigger things.
The American (titled Joika in certain territories) is now available to watch globally on digital and on demand.
