Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Fancy Dance’ on Apple TV+, a Thoughtful Thriller Held Aloft by Lily Gladstone

Fancy Dance ( now streaming on Apple TV+ ) might be yet another title in the endless-scroll menu without the presence of Lily Gladstone, best actress Oscar nominee – and should-have-been winner? – for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon . In fact, Fancy Dance premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, months prior to Moon , and Gladstone’s subsequent mainstream breakthrough prompted Apple to snatch up rights for the intimate indie. Dance is the feature debut for Native American director Erica Tremblay, a documentary filmmaker who co-scripted with Miciana Elise – and their reservation-set story, about a troubled woman searching for her missing sister, greatly benefits from the presence of its star.

New Shows & Movies To Watch This Weekend: ‘The Bear’ Season 3 on Hulu + More

The Gist: Jax Goodiron (Gladstone) and her niece Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) work along the riverbank, the former with a metal detector, the latter fishing crayfish out of the rocks. They spot a fisherman wading through the river. Jax pulls her shirt off and bathes in the glittery sunlight, and as the man gawks, Roki plunders his tacklebox for his wallet and keys. Another sucker for their grift. They sell his truck and other valuables for a pittance at the local salvage yard/convenience store/whatever-you-need (even if it’s not quite legal) everything-mart run by a shady sort named Boo (Blayne Allen). This is Jax’s life: Scraping by, by any means necessary. She’s given up on drug-peddling, she says, now that she’s taking care of Roki, a necessity after their sister/mother Tawi went missing a few weeks back. Jax’s brother JJ (Ryan Begay) is an officer with the tribal police, and in a peculiar position: He can look the other way when, say, a fisherman reports his truck stolen. But when it comes to finding Tawi, the Seneca-Cayuga Nation Reservation is under federal jurisdiction, so he has no say in prioritizing the missing-persons case. And the FBI, well, they’re in no hurry to prioritize it.

When Will ‘Fancy Dance’ Be on Apple TV+? Where to Watch the Lily Gladstone Movie

Piece it all together, and you’re looking at a portrait of systemic depression dating back, well, to the times of Killers of the Flower Moon a century ago, and then another century or three before that. That leaves Jax on her own on all fronts. She treks up to the strip club to kiss her dancer girlfriend (Crystyle Lightning) and show some sneering White boys Tawi’s photo, see if they’ve seen her anywhere. They could be nicer about how they say no, but it apparently doesn’t occur to them. She and Roki shoplift what they can and run grifts and shell games for cash. Roki can barely add up their paltry sum – what does that say about the state of education for young women on the res? – and hopes to pull together enough to pay the entrance fee to dance at the annual powwow in Oklahoma City. Roki believes her mother will turn up there, and Jax doesn’t pooh-pooh the notion; the kid’s only 13. But Jax also knows better. Her sister was mixed up in some fishy shit. She fears the worst.

CLICK HERE TO GET EMAILS FROM DECIDER

Then Jax’s father Frank (Shea Whigham) shows up. He’s White, so he moved off the res after Jax’s mother died, and remarried to the incredibly White Nancy (Audrey Wasilewski), who cluelessly and condescendingly refers to Roki’s powwow regalia as a “costume.” Jax and Frank’s relationship exists somewhere between “estranged” and “probably should talk more but it’s so damn awkward, what with all the baggage.” He also hasn’t showed up to help search for his missing daughter. She asks him to call the feds and urge them to prioritize Wati, since his skin color affords him some advantage. Not long after, Child Protective Services knocks on the door, points at Jax’s criminal record and places Roki in Frank and Nancy’s home. Heartbroken, and maybe feeling she has nothing to lose, Jax starts poking sticks into some dark corners for any inkling as to her sister’s whereabouts – and then sneaks Roki out of Frank’s house. It’s kidnapping, technically. But they’ll shoplift and grift their way to OKC for the powwow, and snoop for more clues. The kid needs something . A little bit of hope, maybe. And Jax needs something too – answers.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Tremblay’s direction finds the median between the keenly observational films of Kelly Reichardt ( Certain Women , Showing Up , First Cow ) and the tense thrillers of Taylor Sheridan ( Wind River especially).

Performance Worth Watching: If you weren’t already convinced by Gladstone’s resume – Flower Moon , Certain Women , TV series Reservation Dogs – then Fancy Dance truly emphasizes her range and capability of carrying a weighty film on her shoulders.

Memorable Dialogue: Nancy tends to say dumbass things like this: “We need to remove all this ‘crazy’ from (Roki’s) life.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: OK Nancy, what is all the “crazy”? The chaotic, petty-criminal hand-to-mouth existence that Jax leads? Or the social and spiritual roots of her Indigenous background? She surely means both, the first one bellowed and the second one whispered. It’s the socio-political dynamic in microcosm: The destruction of Native culture by the Powers That Be in America lays the groundwork for psychological and economic depression. Systemic racism begats systemic desperation. And let it be noted that Jax is not selfish. She wants to raise her niece, because she loves her. But she also doesn’t want Roki to be forcibly removed from her heritage; assimilation and alienation are just another form of depression. Objectively, raising Roki to be a thief and scammer does her no good, either.

So is there a happy medium to be found for the girl? The film wisely doesn’t try to answer that. Ideas burst forth from Fancy Dance in a thoughtful, subtly provocative manner. Confident and assured in her direction, Tremblay uses a deft hand on the material, balancing melodrama with the tension of an on-the-lam thriller. There are moments when we feel this story barrels toward tragedy, and you may utter to yourself, man, I hope Jax ends up in jail rather than the morgue . And Gladstone carries it all – the despair, the hope – in her words, on her face and on her shoulders. She also nourishes interactions with the talented DeRoy-Olsen, and their tender relationship becomes the beating heart of the film.

There are also moments when the movie nearly derails. Its biggest liability is a screenplay that foregoes the immersive and observational components of the first two acts for an overstuffed third that shoehorns in coming-of-age tropes and introduces a gun to the plot, an omnipresent silent threat that inspires a scene that borders on overcooked nonsense. But Fancy Dance ’s assertions about otherism ring loud and clear, and it concludes on a sweet, poetic and affirming note. When the world around you wants to discard you, at least you have yourself, your culture and your people.

Our Call: Fancy Dance is a rock-solid drama that wisely channels its themes through Gladstone’s brilliant characterization. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

For more entertainment news and streaming recommendations, visit decider.com