“The American Side” (** out of four) was a wearying detective melodrama about a low-rent gumshoe (Greg Stuhr) who is called to investigate a suicide at Niagara Falls but stumbles onto a murder conspiracy involving a plot to build an invention built by famed scientist Nikola Tesla! Stuhr is solid and compelling in the lead but this story is stretched well beyond its interest and limits at nearly two hours. Throwback to the detective and gumshoe melodramas of the 1970’s feels like warmed-over reheatings of Coppola and Michael Mann.