Jeri Jacquin
Coming to Apple TV+ from writer/director Erica Tremblay, writer Miciana Alise and Apple Original Films is the search for family in FANCY DANCE.
Living on the Seneca-Cayuga Nation Reservation Jax (Lily Gladstone) is searching for her sister Tawi who has been missing for weeks. Taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), she watches the young girl prepare for a powwow. Jax hasn’t had much luck with federal help in finding her sister and brother/local sheriff JJ (Ryan Begay) is restrained by the rules even if living on the reservation.
If that wasn’t stressful enough, social workers are knocking on the door about Roki’s welfare. Oddly, Jax’s father Frank (Shea Whigham) and wife Nancy (Audrey Wasilewski) pay an unexpected visit. She isn’t thrilled to see him still feeling angry at the way he left the family years before. Jax makes it clear that she owes it to Tawi to get involved and ask the authorities for help.
Placing posters everywhere, Jax arrives home to find social services removing Roki from their home and placing her with Frank and Nancy. Told to get along with her father before the court date, Jax visits Roki who still wants to go to the powwow believing her mother will be there as well. Nancy makes it clear that she isn’t allowed to take Roki anywhere alone.
Spending her time following leads to find Tawi, Jax is eventually frustrated enough that she makes a bold move. Sneaking Roki out, they go on a journey that will put them both in danger!
Gladstone as Jax is angry believing that because they are Indigenous Peoples, it is the reason no one will help find her sister. They won’t intervene with that but they certainly have no problem interfering with Roki’s living situation blaming Jaxs’ past run-ins with the law. Gladstone gives us a performance of a someone who will do anything for her family and run over whatever laws (and break more than a few) that will stand in her way. Her character is intense, focused and defiant from beginning to end and strongly done.
Deroy-Olsen as Roki is a young girl who lives life the best she can. Learning some bad habits from Jax, she mainly just wants her mother home so that they can once again go to the powwow to perform as mother-daughter. She is tossed and turned through the conflicting, secretive adult world discovering that they don’t always tell the truth about things. Deroy-Olsen role is that of a charming teen who is a little defiant and as strong willed as her aunt.
Whigham as Frank is a father who hasn’t been a father to either of his daughters. Instead, he has chosen to ignore what he did leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. Whigham’s gives us a character that may know the culture but doesn’t show any signs of truly understanding it. Wasilewski as Nancy is a nasty piece of work to my way of thinking. Not able to have children of her own, I see her character as someone who thinks its okay to snag a child away for her own selfish reasons [see ballet-shoes scene] and then attempt to ‘white wash’ her. Me not liking the character goes to Wasilewski’s performance being so well done.
Begay as JJ is a sheriff who is stuck between two worlds. Following the law on the tribal land side and under the watchful eye of law enforcement when Roki goes “missing”. Begay slides between both worlds knowing that his loyalty lies with his people.
Other cast include Blayne Allen as Boo, Patrice Fisher as Ruth, Arianne Martin as Conna, Tyler Tipton as Chad, Michael Rowe as Elder Philip, Crystle Lightning as Sapphire, Lillian Faye Thomas as Lillie, Casey Camp-Horinek as Mary, Trey Munden as Ryan, Blake Blair as Tanner, Dennis Newman as Derrick and Hauli Sioux Gray as Tawi.
Apple TV+ is a video on demand web television that debuted in 2019 viewable through the Apple TV app. CEO Tim Cook wanted original content calling it “a great opportunity for us from a creation point of view”. From THE MORNING SHOW to TRYING and THE BANKER and Jason Momoa in SEE, there is plenty of choices for everyone. Plenty of genres? That is exactly what they are bringing to viewers and to see more of what they have to offer please visit www.apple.com/tv/.
FANCY DANCE has won the Hamptons International Film Festival Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking, L.A. Outfest’s North American Narrative Feature, NewFest: New York’s LGBT Film Festival for Best Narrative Feature, Mill Valley Film Festival Mind the Gap Narrative, Tacoma Film Festival Best Narrative Feature, Sun Valley Film Festival, US Best Narrative Feature Film, Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Awards Achievement in Oklahoma Independent Filmmaking – all for Erica Tremblay, SXSW Film Festival’s ZEISS Cinematography Award for Carolina Costa, Austin Film Critics Association Breakthrough Artist Award for Lily Gladstone, and Film Club’s The Lost Weekend Best Supporting Actress for Isabel Deroy-Olson.
FANCY DANCE is the story of an aunt and her niece living a life of day-to-day struggle on the reservation. Of course, there is the way in which they try to live that is shady by way of theft and drugs but it is an honest portrayal in its dark side. Jax is right in that a missing native woman is not on the radar of anyone on the reservation because it could cause unwanted trouble and it is of no interest to the off-reservation authorities as not being high on their list.
Roki being taken away shows the way in which outsiders try to control those on the reservation and their laws by asserting their own. Giving the girl to Jax’s father and wife, who wants to turn her into something she is not, is the continuation in the attempt to destroy the Seneca-Cayuga Nation’s culture and family structure.
This film addresses so many of the problems the Indigenous face still today. From missing women, addictions, poor living conditions, desecration of lands and the continuation of laws being convenient for those that are not indigenous (and many more issues), FANCY DANCE takes on a few mixed into an intense story of love, family, and culture.
In the end – their bond is life!
