Fancy Dance

Jax and Roki are two of the most lovable criminals you could meet. A misfit prone to alcohol binges and her 13-year-old niece whose mother is missing, their story in Fancy Dance is a bit of a mystery, a bit of a tale of criminals on the run, a bit of a political commentary on the USA law enforcement’s inaction on missing and murdered indigenous women, and — somehow — a bit of a warm-hearted character study.

Director Erica Tremblay, who co-wrote the screenplay with Miciana Alise, creates an emotionally engaging portrait of the struggles of life on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma. Two great performances give the movie a rich poignancy, courtesy of Lily Gladstone as Jax and Isabel Deroy-Olson as young Roki.

In the opening sequence, Tremblay immediately illustrates a cheeky ability to show both the traditional and criminal side of native life. It begins with some scenic footage along the river, with Jax telling Roki some tips for living off the land. But when they spot a white man fishing, they don’t miss a beat in silently executing a plan to boost his truck.

These characters aren’t angels — they do what they have to do to survive. While Roki has nimble shoplifting fingers and a keen sense of deal-making, she’s also an emotionally vulnerable 13-year-old who misses her mom. Deroy-Olson sells her character’s many facets in a remarkably tender performance, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see her in higher-profile projects very soon.

While her mother has vanished and most people already speak about her in the past tense, Roki remains hopeful that she will return in time to go to the state’s annual powwow, at which they always don decorative clothing and participate in the mother-daughter dance-off. The powwow becomes the last hope she has of reconnecting with her mom. Things become even more complicated when child services wants to to remove Roki from the reservation and send her to live with her white grandfather (Shea Whigham).

Indigenous women in the USA disproportionately go missing and become murder victims. Taylor Sheridan’s engaging 2017 thriller Wind River, which also premiered at Sundance, aimed to bring attention to this issue in the form of an entertaining procedural crime thriller. While Fancy Dance also has elements of mystery and suspense, it feels more intimate and personal — the main characters all live on the reservation, and feel powerless to stop their friends and family from disappearing.

There are no government agents to be the white main characters, because no government agents come to help. Jax carries around a missing flier with her sister’s picture on it, and posts copies around town, but when she asks for an update from law enforcement, it’s clear that no one is investigating her sister at all. It’s out of the reservation law enforcement’s jurisdiction, even though Jax’s brother (Ryan Begay) is the chief of police, and the FBI’s only resource is a tip line people can call.

There is some intrigue to the film’s murder mystery, but Fancy Dance’s real strength is in the relationship and struggles of its two female leads. It captures their grief as they deal with a loss that’s mired in a lack of closure. And more deeply, it captures the grief of a community that experiences this type of loss all too often.