Fancy Dance: Lily Gladstone Steps Up As Fierce Aunt Jax
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
This was anything but “fancy,” but at least there’s some dancing and a deceptively heartwarming climax that might just make viewers forget the gloomy incidents leading up to it and savor the satisfactory ‘happy ending’ of the film “Fancy Dance.” I say deceptive because once you begin to think about what would potentially happen to the protagonists after the seemingly sweet curtain call, almost all likely scenarios point towards a messy, unhappy aftermath.
Director Erica Tremblay has co-written “Fancy Dance” with Miciana Alise, and the story follows Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) as Jax, a Native American woman looking for her missing sister while taking care of her 13-year-old niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson). However, as if desperately looking for Roki’s mother wasn’t troubling enough, the authorities decide the girl should be handed over to her grandparents due to Jax’s criminal history of dealing with drugs.
“Fancy Dance” opens with a tranquil, picturesque scene of the aunt Jax and Roki spending time outdoors, catching crabs and fish, until they decide to steal a guy’s vehicle and run off. It sets a comically amusing tone for the aunt-niece relationship, but also makes it challenging to root for the aunt who’s basically training her minor niece to become a career criminal. So even though it is heartbreaking to see the authorities trying to tear the aunt-niece apart, they aren’t wrong in their evaluation of Jax as an “unfit” guardian. Lily Gladstone, however, is a force of nature to reckon with as the intimidating, serious Jax, who loves her sister and niece to death. Each frame with Lily Gladstone is powerful, her Jax is a practical, hard-working hustler. She is the kind of aunt you wouldn’t want to mess with. And despite her killer demeanor, she is a soft aunt, who encourages Roki to believe she will see her mom at the Powwow, a Native American celebration. So the Powwow’s power to connect families is one of the strongest metaphors in the tale.
It’s a good thing that the runtime for “Fancy Dance” is only 90 minutes long because any more and it would’ve been a test of patience. While the cinematography and music are subtle, the only thing setting “Fancy Dance” apart from dime-a-dozen movies about problematic adults trying to take care of a child is the Native-American angle and some cultural elements. Although wait, the thriller M3GAN was also about an aunt trying to take care of her niece, except that she passes her babysitting responsibilities to a robot-doll that tries to kill everybody. If you’re looking for something exciting, watch that.
Anyway, back to “Fancy Dance” – one of its biggest themes, of course, is racial discrimination, and the creators astutely depict how hard it is for minorities to get their voices heard. Despite having a brother (Ryan Begay) in the force, Jax is unable to make the authorities take her missing sister’s case seriously. What’s more bizarre is that her white dad won’t do anything to help either, even though all he has to do is make a call to the FBI to help build some pressure.
“Fancy Dance” bounces between being a tense thriller about a woman looking for her older sister and a warm tale about an aunt trying to look out for her niece. Roki’s grandparents trying to bond with her is just painfully boring, and it could’ve been funnier, just to give viewers some sort of comical relief in this otherwise somber tale. Lily Gladstone and Isabel Deroy-Olson as Jax and Roki do get some fleeting fun moments together, like when they try out lipsticks in a shop or sneak around looking for trouble.
There are no significant emotional highs and lows in the film except for the poignant climax, which is only superficially “happy” but gives Jax and Roki a rousing photo finish.
You can watch “Fancy Dance” on Apple TV+
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