Returning after Killers of the Flower Moon , Lily Gladstone delivers yet another award-worthy performance in documentary filmmaker Erica Tremblay’s feature directorial debut Fancy Dance . If the Martin Scorsese film had her in a place of command that she aced with her subtle acting, in Fancy Dance she is a victim of her circumstances that she tries to escape with unyielding perseverance. Fancy Dance puts us in the middle of the action right from the get-go; after her sister’s disappearance, Jax (Gladstone) takes care of her niece Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) on the Seneca–Cayuga Nation Reservation.
When her custody over the teen is at peril thanks to Jax’s father Frank (Shea Whigham), the two ladies make a run for it. If this isn’t enough, Jax is trying to figure out where her sister might be. She has also promised Roki that she will see her mom at an upcoming powwow, a gathering held for Native American and First Nations communities.
ALSO READ: The (mis)representation of Native Americans in Hollywood Despite a running time of 90 minutes, Fancy Dance skilfully unpacks a lot and also gives some of the most layered characters we have seen in recent times. Jax used to peddle drugs for a living in the past, does not think twice before committing petty thefts and has a complicated relationship with her white father who, after the death of their mother, married another white woman. Roki, on the other hand, is an extension of her aunt whose innocence of wanting to dance with .
