The upcoming Apple TV+ film Fancy Dance, now playing in theaters before its streaming release on June 28th, is the type of unromanticized character study that should be celebrated. Seen through a double feminist and cultural safety lens, Fancy Dance is patient in the way the character study unfolds, sneaking up on you with its modern-day tale of colonialism still ongoing in America today.
Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Lily Gladstone is at the center of the story. The Indigenous actress gives a convincing performance as a woman who embodies strength and resilience with an unwavering and calm demeanor when seen. However, when alone, she displays the type of private vulnerability that packs a poignant punch to a sometimes stagnant story.
Apple TV+’s Fancy Dance Review and Synopsis
The story follows Jax (Killers of the Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone), a middle-aged woman and member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. She has a home on the reservation and is the caretaker of her niece, Roki (Gladstone’s Under the Bridge co-star, Isabel DeRoy-Olson). The young and impressionable teenager has been living with her aunt since her mom disappeared months ago.
Jax isn’t exactly a good influence on Roki. They go around town looking to take advantage of anyone they can find. She comes up with the ingenious act of stealing gas and even distracts local fishermen by washing up in a river, all while her niece steals an old white male retiree’s wallet and car keys. Jax and Roki steal a truck and drop it off at a local chop shop for quick cash.
Lily Gladstone Embodies Strength and Resilience
Jax is helping Roki save up for the upcoming powwow. Roki asks her aunt if her mom will return by then, but Jax, because her sister has done this before. Then, her father, Frank (Shea Whigham), visits with his wife, Nancy (Audrey Wasilewski). Coincidentally, a social worker shows up the next day, putting Roki in Frank’s care after failing to defuse Jax’s felony drug charge from a decade prior.
Fancy Dance is the product of writer/director Erica Tremblay, an Indigenous filmmaker known for her powerful and unvarnished documentaries. The performances from Gladstone move the film along with an engaging portrayal of a woman frantically trying to find a way to bring her sister and her niece back to their community. It’s easily the part of the film that keeps the viewer’s attention.
Is Apple TV+’s Fancy Dance Worth Watching?
The best part of Tremblay’s script is the intersectionality of Indigenous women. For one, the socioeconomic factors force Gladstone’s Jax to take up stealing or selling drugs to survive, a practice she passes along to her niece. Another is how Indigenous women go missing in America, similar to the themes of Wind River. These themes smartly avoid healthy doses of melodrama.
Fancy Dance is worth watching but be prepared for an underwhelming conclusion that trades a potentially explosive ending for a culturally appropriate and poignant one. Additionally, Tremblay, like many documentary filmmakers who transition into features, struggles with moving the story along by artificial means, similar to Liz Garbus’s first feature, Lost Girls, which feels forced.
However, Fancy Dance’s modern-day character study on criminal cultural assimilation leaves its mark in unexpected ways. Along with Gladstone’s performance, the film is worth a mild recommendation.
You can stream the Fancy Dance on Apple TV+ June 28th.
6/10
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