The romantic, magic hour, setting sun version of the American West gallops into a wall of ugly reality in War Pony, the story of two boys – the bright young teen Matho who is in high school and late-teen Bill who already has kids by two different girlfriends – growing up on a reservation belonging to the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Directed with immersive realism by actress-turned-director Riley Keough (Mad Max: Fury Road, The Girlfriend Experience) and Gina Gammell, the film has a highly fragmented style of editing that can be a bit off-putting at times, but it mirrors the jumbled lives of these youngsters growing into men without parental guidance or educational goals. It won the prestigious Camera d’Or award at Cannes for best first film, a recognition that should certainly whip the Protagonist Pictures/CAA release towards wider audiences.
There’s not much that reflects the Native Americans’ traditional way of life in the film, outside of an opening scene-setter on the vast prairies of South Dakota, dotted with a weathered clapboard house and a man mumbling to drumbeats over a smoking coal. It immediately gives way to modern reality with Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) behind the wheel of his very old car grooving to hip-hop with his homies, just as a white horse rides by his window. It is one of the only times a horse appears on screen, although there are several brief visions of a horned buffalo, which one interprets as having more of a magical/symbolic status.
Bill’s life is a fast-moving river of errands and sales. “Wanna buy a PlayStation?” he shouts out the window at small boys who don’t seem like they have a candy allowance. Yet soon we’re introduced to Matho (Ladainian Crazy Thunder), who is learning basic math in school from a highly unmotivated teacher while stealing his Dad’s drug supplies and reselling them, in a hood made up of poor families with lots of kids living in permanently parked trailers and simple houses. In Gammell and Keough’s screenplay written with Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, it is novel how Bill and Matho’s stories happen at the same time and place and yet the characters never overlap until the very end, in a compassionate and unexpected coming together.
In the midst of Bill’s business affairs, he hears that his ex-girlfriend Carly has landed in jail for unspecified reasons and needs $400 for bail. An older, grandmotherly woman in the house advises him to steal the money if necessary. While he returns a strange-looking poodle to its owner (did he dognap it?) and asks for a reward, he is led to believe the dog is worth thousands of dollars and he can breed it – a long story that is threaded through the rest of the film. Despite his illicit wheeling and dealing and his utterly irresponsible approach to child care, Bill is a strong and attractive character who, in actor Bapteise Whiting’s hands, shows an innocence (mimicked by a little red heart tattoo under his eye) than is not gullibility.
One day he discovers the silver-haired Tim (Jesse Schmockel), a wealthy white turkey farmer, stranded on the road with a flat tire, an unexpected chance for Bill to barter his help. What he learns later is that Tim has a passed-out girl in the car, one of a series of Native girls from the reservation who Bill will be put in charge of taking home when Tim is through with them. (And why are they all half-dead when he’s done? Another unanswered question for the viewer to fill in.) A job on the turkey farm also brings Bill into dangerous contact with Tim’s sultry and very dissatisfied wife Allison (Ashley Shelton), who promises no good.
Matho is younger and his trajectory is even more dramatic, if that’s possible. In a skirmish with bigger drug dealers, he gets his father involved with tragic consequences. For a while he lodges with a sort of auntie who gives homeless boys a place to stay if they go to school and stay on good behavior. Since she also deals drugs, when Matho gets expelled from school it attracts too much unwanted attention by the authorities, and she kicks him out. The engaging performance by young Crazy Thunder is as concentrated as a laser, showing a touching maturity beyond his years that keeps us invested in his story,
David Gallego’s silky-shadowy photography, night shooting and dark interiors give the film its dose of atmosphere and beauty, even if the daylight reality is harsh, indeed. The ever-moving lens injects the story with dynamism which is revved up even further by the in-your-face editing (multi-credited) that switches rapidly between the two storylines — sometimes to the point of confusion, though this is rare. Also noteworthy is Scout Dougan’s versatile production design, equally convincing in the crowded homes of the Native people contrasted to the glamorous open spaces and excesses of Tim and Allison’s manse.
Directors: Gina Gammell, Riley Keough
Screenplay: Franklin Sioux Bob, Bill Reddy, Riley Keough, Gina Gammell
Cast: Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder, Jesse Schmockel, Ashley Shelton, Wilma Colhoff, Iona Red Bear
Producers: Willi White, Bert Hamelinck, Ryan Zacarias, Sacha Ben Harroche, Riley Keough, Gina Gammell
Executive producer: Pte San Win Poor Bear
Cinematography: David Gallego
Production design: Scout Dougan
Costume design: Miyako Bellizzi, Alex Lee
Editing: Affonso Goncalves, Eduardo Serrano with Ernie Gilbert
Music: Christopher Stracey, Mato Wayuhi
Production companies: Felix Culpa, Caviar (U.S.)
World sales: Protagonist Pictures (international), CAA (U.S.)
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)
In English
114 minutes
