The disappearance of Wadatawi Goodiron worries few people on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma. And even fewer outside it.
Faced with the inaction of local and federal authorities, his sister, Jax (Lily Gladstone, nominated for an Oscar for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon), takes matters into her own hands. Tawi, as the absent girl is nicknamed, doesn’t hang out with the best of friends, but that doesn’t stop her sister from asking questions of people who aren’t used to opening up. Jax has been in this life before. She’s given it up, in part. For the past two weeks, she’s been a full-time caregiver to her 13-year-old niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson, seen in the series Three Pines), and to support themselves, they turn to petty crime.
Her past comes back to haunt her when a youth protection officer takes custody of Roki away from her and gives her to her grandfather, Frank (Shea Whigham, always so fair). The latter has been rather absent from his daughters’ lives since the death of their mother. He and his partner open their doors and their hearts to Roki, but she agrees without hesitation to flee in the middle of the night with her aunt to go to the Oklahoma City powwow.
Unable to admit to her – and to admit to himself – that the chances of finding her mother are slim, Jax promises the teenager that she will be at the powwow, where they dance together every year. The festive gathering here represents hope, but also disillusionment. Along the way, Jax, who follows a trail based on few clues, makes a series of bad decisions that put his life and that of his niece in danger.
The chemistry between the two actresses is remarkable. We believe in their experiences, in the trust that Roki gives to his aunt and in the pressure that Jax imposes on himself to spare his niece. The natural acting of Lily Gladstone and Isabel Deroy-Olson allows us to excuse a script that gets carried away in the third act.
Erica Tremblay, who is making her first feature film after a few documentaries and episodes of Reservation Dogsdelicately addresses difficult themes while filtering enough light to avoid sinking into miserabilism. Without artifice, it maintains a good tension that does not let the outcome be guessed. Fancy Dance is, however, more a story about the difficulties of a community and the general indifference towards it than a breathtaking thriller. Thanks to its artisans, it is above all a human drama.
Drama
Fancy Dance (VF: The Shawl Dance)
Erica Tremblay
With Lily Gladstone, Isabel Deroy-Olson, Shea Whigham
1 h 32
On Apple TV+