The film stars Jim Gaffigan, Robbie Jones, Isabel Arraiza, Tammy Blanchard, Alejandro Hernandez and Brian K. Landis.

Cam gets the opportunity to chauffeur a low-level drug dealer named Mazz (Robbie Jones) for extra money.

However, his increasing financial problems force him to make a rash and desperate decision: kidnap Mazz's infant child and demand a ransom.

[5] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "Directed with claustrophobic, docudrama-style intensity by Derrick Borte (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Forte) and featuring a career-best dramatic performance by Gaffigan, American Dreamer is a dark and intense and sometimes brutally violent slice of rotted life.

"[6] Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Borte has shown a preference for happy endings in his previous work, but here he embraces the story’s dark implications, and the results, however discomforting, are dramatically satisfying.