Songs My Brothers Taught Me

I enjoyed the film, a contemporary portrait of growing up and coming of age in America in a very different setting and culture than most. Early on, the movie gave me the distinct feeling of watching a documentary rather than a fiction with rehearsed actors. Images tell the stories as much as the dialog, which is very spare. The characters seem very real, as real as their scruffy surroundings. A worthwhile portrait of a part of society most of us won't see, "really" see. The Badlands scenery is very stark and so are (most) of the lives depicted. It's interesting that I saw this film in a contemporary arts center, where it played for two nights. It seems films like this struggle to get on enough screens in enough places to get noticed much. Maybe some people will get to see in on video, I hope.

It's easy to make a film like this go wrong, with all of the potential possibilities to be lazy and write these characters and stereotypes. Of course, the film doesn't do that and it's because Chloe Zhao has a real knack for creating profound humanity through the images that represent this type of life, humanity that she infuses her characters with. This is a very special film and this is a director to watch out for.

First time director Chloe Zhao takes her cues from Terrence Malick in this beautiful portrait of two siblings on the Pine Ridge Res.

DeShaun is the youngest of two full biological siblings, taken care of by her older brother Johnny, who is about to graduate high school. A 3rd full sibling, Cody, is imprisoned, while the siblings' mother doesn't quite seem up to the task of taking care of any of her children. As graduation approaches Johnny faces a difficult decision; stay on the res where opportunity is limited but where he can take care of his sister and mother, or leave for L.A. where he knows no one and has nothing, in order to follow his girlfriend who has a full ride scholarship and who will be living in the dorms at school.

There's not a huge amount of plot outside this main conflict and the characters mostly amble in and out of situations and conversations with very little narrative threads connecting them. But Zhao remains committed to capturing the joys and hardship of residential life where everyone has to hustle for money but beauty, friends and family are everywhere to be seen.

Watched this to see Chloé Zhao's debut feature and was rewarded with a slow immersion into life on an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. There's a loose plot about a brother and sister who, after the death of a distant father figure, are working out what the future holds for them, but this is much more "scenes from the reservation".

It reminded me of Gummo (a film I love) in its depiction of a world almost without authority figures, where tragedy (In Gummo, a tornado, here; a loss of culture generations past, and decimation from alcohol) seems to leave the inhabitants disoriented, struggling to know what to do.

The performances from the non-professional cast are stellar. Zhao has somehow managed to capture what seems like a slice of real life but in a way that makes even a difficult life seem beautiful and achingly close to something bigger.

I have yet to see The Rider, or Nomadland, but from what I've seen of them, they look to have a similar energy. That Marvel tapped Zhao to direct the upcoming Eternals movie is fascinating. It will be interesting to see how this aesthetic looks when it has a bigger budget, but also must serve a wider audience seeking the next step in a connected narrative. I believe Zhao will deliver something special.

The director, Chloe Zaho said she's hoping "for the audiences to leave the theater feeling that they have gotten to know a group of very complex characters and to have a glimpse into just how diverse and vivacious the Lakota people of Pine Ridge really are, instead of the two dimensional stereotypes we often see represented in today's dominant culture". Well, it's a success.

This movie spoke to me of love and care. Of family - in the most broader sense that this big concept can be stretched to - and belonging. Of home and community. There's something real sweet about it... A real tenderness in the way it is filmed, in the way these characters' stories are told. Some sort of hope in the face of the disappointments and obstacles they may and do encounter. A hope that lies in the love and care of the siblings, Jashaun & Johnny for one another and, more broadly, in the bound the people of Pine Ridge have to each other - and for some to the land itself.