It seemed as if every other teen movie from back in the day had a late-story dance scene, e.g., “Fast Times” and “Footloose,” “Pretty in Pink” and “She’s All That,” “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Mean Girls” — and those dances almost invariably involved suburban white kids, most with bright futures.
In Erica Tremblay’s lean and quietly powerful “Fancy Dance,” a 13-year-old girl named Roki can scarcely contain her excitement about an upcoming dance, but the circumstances in this story couldn’t be more different than those old-school high school fairy tales. Roki doesn’t have a crush on a classmate, nor is she dreaming about the upcoming dance giving her a golden opportunity to fit in with the cool kids; she’s hoping against hope that her troubled mother, who has recently disappeared, will resurface at the upcoming Grand Nation Powwow in Oklahoma City and join her for the mother-daughter dance.
In a story that is equal parts thriller, domestic drama and examination of systematic cultural oppression and forced assimilation, Roki sees that dance as her best and perhaps last chance to be reunited with mother, even if that might not be the best thing for her long-term future. It’s her mother.
With Tremblay (who co-wrote the screenplay with Michiana Alise) making a strong directorial debut and eschewing overly romanticized visuals for a stark and docudrama feel, “Fancy Dance” stars Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) in a brilliant performance as Jax, a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation in Oklahoma who lives with her sister Tawi (Hauli Sioux Gray) and her 13-year-old niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson).
At the outset of the story, Tawi, who works as an exotic dancer and apparently has a history of irresponsible behavior, has been missing for days, not that the local authorities seem troubled about it. As Jax’s half-brother JJ (Ryan Begay), a tribal police officer, reminds Jax, this is hardly the first time Tawi has gone missing. We get the feeling Jax has been looking after Roki as a kind of second mother for years (we learn the Cayuga word for aunt translates to “little mother”), and they clearly have a loving bond, even as Jax teaches Roki how to pull off clever small-time crime and con jobs.
Roki is brimming with anticipation about the upcoming powwow, and Jax keeps reassuring Roki that her mother will be there, even though Jax knows it’s probable that like so many other Native American girls and women, Tawi has disappeared forever. Jax has a dark past of her own that involved selling drugs and getting mixed up with seriously bad people, and she must re-enter that world in an effort to track down Tawi.
Director Tremblay shows a deft touch for creating almost unbearably tense moments, as when Jax risks her life by delivering drugs to some casually ruthless thugs, just so she can see if they have any information about Tawi’s whereabouts.
At least Jax and Roki have each other — until Jax’s estranged white father Frank (Shea Whigham) re-enters the picture, and a social worker places Roki with Frank and his wife Nancy (Audrey Wasilewski), whom Frank married years ago, after Jax’s mother died. When Jax shows up at Frank’s house in the middle of the night and has Roki run off with her, well, NOW the authorities spring into action. Nobody cared about finding Roki’s mother, but there’s a statewide manhunt to return this kidnapped girl to her white grandparents.
Lily Gladstone and Isabel Deroy-Olson have such an instant and believable chemistry together as Jax and Roki, and our first instinct is to root for them to somehow survive the mess they’re in and wind up living together in their home, but as Jax places Roki in one dangerous predicament after another, we realize that’s probably not the best-case endgame scenario. (Director/co-writer Tremblay makes sure that Frank and Nancy, while culturally clueless and virtual strangers to Roki, are not portrayed as caricatures.) It will be tragic if Roki is taken from her home, but it becomes increasingly apparent that her home won’t be there for her anymore.
Given the circumstances, there’s no road that “Fancy Dance” can take that will lead to a happy ending — but it does end on a pitch-perfect final note.