June 25, 2024
FILM: FANCY DANCE
DIRECTED BY: ERICA TREMBLAY
STARRING: LILY GLADSTONE, ISABEL DEROY-OLSON, SHEA WHIGHAM
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s great to see Lily Gladstone getting roles in which she can represent her Native American heritage. Such parts are becoming more plentiful thanks to film and television projects like Killers of the Flower Moon (for which Gladstone was Oscar-nominated earlier this year) and Reservation Dogs (the Hulu series in which she also guest-starred.) The problem in the case of the film Fancy Dance is that what she is portraying doesn’t exactly represent her people very well.
Gladstone plays Jax, a hustler living in rural Oklahoma, whose sister Tawi has recently gone missing. Jax has a history of criminal behavior and continues to sell drugs and shoplift. She then kidnaps Tawi’s daughter Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) to try to find her mother. They have a very solid aunt/niece relationship so it isn’t quite as dark as this premise suggests. But what Jax is doing is illegal and she tells Roki over and over again that Tawi will be back to attend the local annual tribal pow wow which includes a special dance between mother and daughter.
There are many things wrong with this picture. First off, why is it so necessary for Jax to give Roki a false sense of hope? Does she really believe Tawi will be found? This is appearing increasingly unlikely. Jax also wants Roki to be with her instead of Jax’s white father (Shea Whigham.) Why this is so important is not immediately clear. He and his current wife seem like decent people whereas Jax is clearly not the best role model. Perhaps that’s Jax’s motivation: She wants to have something to call her own. But this makes Jax appear selfish. She is also introducing Roki to a life of crime which, sadly, Roki never questions as an illegal and unsafe way to live.
The answer to Jax’s actions must then come from the importance she places on taking care of her own people, as it appears the local police, including her own brother, aren’t doing enough to find Tawi. This seems to be a larger message about the necessity of a culture to stand up for themselves. The pow wow itself features a particular dance to honor those in the tribal community who have gone missing or who have been murdered. So then why not make this issue a larger focus of the narrative? Most of what we get here is a series of illegal activities done in the name of solving a missing person’s case. There’s nothing that feels heroic about Jax’s mission. She’s giving herself and her people a bad name.
Lily Gladstone is good in the role though. Similar to some of the other characters she’s played she mostly operates from the inside out. This is not a big, showy performance (neither was her part in Killers of the Flower Moon.) She’s subtle and tough when necessary and quietly emotional when needed. Although not a major element of the narrative, Jax also seems to prefer women and Gladstone never resides to depicting what could be a “butch” stereotype. Rather she creates someone who is much more complex and a queer character that is rarely seen in portrayals of Native Americans on screen. The film should also be commended for the inclusion of the native dialogue spoken between Jax and Roxi (sub-titles are included for the rest of us.) This emphasizes how important the culture truly is to each of them.
Typical for an independent film such as this, there is nothing overly fancy about how the production is shot and edited. There are some nice uses of color though that emphasize the cool approach Jax and Roxi take in their quest.
Still, it’s the overall message of the film that I had the harder time with. Is this really the best way to tell the story of a missing Native American woman and the larger culture’s response to it?
Fancy Dance is currently playing in limited theatrical release. It will be available for streaming on AppleTV+ beginning June 28th.
FILM: FANCY DANCE
DIRECTED BY: ERICA TREMBLAY
STARRING: LILY GLADSTONE, ISABEL DEROY-OLSON, SHEA WHIGHAM
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s great to see Lily Gladstone getting roles in which she can represent her Native American heritage. Such parts are becoming more plentiful thanks to film and television projects like Killers of the Flower Moon (for which Gladstone was Oscar-nominated earlier this year) and Reservation Dogs (the Hulu series in which she also guest-starred.) The problem in the case of the film Fancy Dance is that what she is portraying doesn’t exactly represent her people very well.
Gladstone plays Jax, a hustler living in rural Oklahoma, whose sister Tawi has recently gone missing. Jax has a history of criminal behavior and continues to sell drugs and shoplift. She then kidnaps Tawi’s daughter Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) to try to find her mother. They have a very solid aunt/niece relationship so it isn’t quite as dark as this premise suggests. But what Jax is doing is illegal and she tells Roki over and over again that Tawi will be back to attend the local annual tribal pow wow which includes a special dance between mother and daughter.
There are many things wrong with this picture. First off, why is it so necessary for Jax to give Roki a false sense of hope? Does she really believe Tawi will be found? This is appearing increasingly unlikely. Jax also wants Roki to be with her instead of Jax’s white father (Shea Whigham.) Why this is so important is not immediately clear. He and his current wife seem like decent people whereas Jax is clearly not the best role model. Perhaps that’s Jax’s motivation: She wants to have something to call her own. But this makes Jax appear selfish. She is also introducing Roki to a life of crime which, sadly, Roki never questions as an illegal and unsafe way to live.
The answer to Jax’s actions must then come from the importance she places on taking care of her own people, as it appears the local police, including her own brother, aren’t doing enough to find Tawi. This seems to be a larger message about the necessity of a culture to stand up for themselves. The pow wow itself features a particular dance to honor those in the tribal community who have gone missing or who have been murdered. So then why not make this issue a larger focus of the narrative? Most of what we get here is a series of illegal activities done in the name of solving a missing person’s case. There’s nothing that feels heroic about Jax’s mission. She’s giving herself and her people a bad name.
Lily Gladstone is good in the role though. Similar to some of the other characters she’s played she mostly operates from the inside out. This is not a big, showy performance (neither was her part in Killers of the Flower Moon.) She’s subtle and tough when necessary and quietly emotional when needed. Although not a major element of the narrative, Jax also seems to prefer women and Gladstone never resides to depicting what could be a “butch” stereotype. Rather she creates someone who is much more complex and a queer character that is rarely seen in portrayals of Native Americans on screen. The film should also be commended for the inclusion of the native dialogue spoken between Jax and Roxi (sub-titles are included for the rest of us.) This emphasizes how important the culture truly is to each of them.
Typical for an independent film such as this, there is nothing overly fancy about how the production is shot and edited. There are some nice uses of color though that emphasize the cool approach Jax and Roxi take in their quest.
Still, it’s the overall message of the film that I had the harder time with. Is this really the best way to tell the story of a missing Native American woman and the larger culture’s response to it?
Fancy Dance is currently playing in limited theatrical release. It will be available for streaming on AppleTV+ beginning June 28th.