Review: Small Mother

‘Fancy Dance’ is an original portrait of reimagined motherhood

The Yearning Rating: ✰✰✰½

• Romance: ✰

• Sex: ✰

• Storytelling: ✰✰✰½  

• Performance: ✰✰✰✰✰

• Yearning: ✰✰✰✰✰

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Some spoilers ahead. 

Written by Ali Romig 

Back in December of last year, while accepting an award for their highly acclaimed performance in the Oscar-nominated film, Killers of the Flower Moon, actor Lily Gladstone said, “This performance that I want to talk about, this one that has been the absolute highlight of my career, the best work I feel like I’ve ever done, the most important story, elevating the awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women, working with the greatest, most visionary, most committed director of my life, working with somebody who I love very dearly and had the best chemistry I’ve had with somebody onscreen. The greatest love story that I’ve ever told in my career. This performance is in a film that currently has no distribution. You all thought I was talking about the other movie, didn’t you?”

In fact, Lily was talking about Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance, which initially premiered at Sundance in early 2023, and finally scored distribution via Apple TV+ in June of this year—largely thanks to Gladstone using the success of Killers to platform the indigenous drama. While I am sad that it took so long for the film’s wide-release, I am thrilled that it is finally accessible to so many. Not only did Fancy Dance give me another opportunity to appreciate Gladstone in all their raspy-voiced, cigarette-smoking, button-up-wearing butch glory, but it also offered an emotionally astute and affectingly sparse portrait of how motherhood and womanhood don’t always look how you expect them to. 

Apple TV+

Written by Tremblay and Miciana Alise, Fancy Dance follows Jax (Lily Gladstone), an indigenous woman living on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, as she searches for her missing sister, Tawi. In the weeks since her sister’s disappearance, Jax has been the sole caretaker for her niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), although she’s kept the truth of Tawi’s whereabouts from her. Jax reassures Roki by claiming Tawi will certainly show up for the powwow they attend every year. But in reality, Jax is becoming increasingly worried that Tawi may never be found. The tribal police are limited in what they can do because of FBI jurisdiction, but the FBI are basically MIA, and won’t return Jax’s phone calls. The authority figures that do show up throughout the film are antagonistic—social workers who want to remove Roki from Jax’s home due to her criminal history; ICE agents who grill the pair on their immigration status; security guards who leer for no reason. Jax trudges wearily through the film’s 90-minute runtime, bogged down and exhausted by the weight of this repeated denigration. 

Fancy Dance is an incredibly down-to-earth film. Its script is slender and its scenes are quiet, often showcasing details of the reservation and letting the audience sit with them uninterrupted for extended beats. It is further grounded by Lily Gladstone’s embodied performance. I’ve become used to the way that they can communicate so much with just a flick of their eye, or the slightest exhale. These unique microexpressions are so telling, and they work wonderfully here as much of Jax’s tumult remains necessarily suppressed. Gladstone and Deroy-Olson are effortless together as auntie and niece. One of my favorite visuals from the film is Roki subtly trying to mimic Jax’s confident posture when they go to exchange a stolen car for cash. We instantly understand that these two are fiercely protective of one another; their strong bond is only tested when Jax continues to lie to an increasingly suspicious Roki about Tawi’s disappearance. 

Apple TV+

This small schism is made worse by the appearance of Frank—Jax and Tawi’s white father—and his new wife Nancy. They insist it would be better for Roki to stay with them, reassuring Jax that they know “how important her culture is to her,” and in the same breath letting her know she’ll have to skip the powwow. I was really struck by this moment and the way it brought into sharp clarity how many white Americans misunderstand the reality of “culture.” One of the highlights of Fancy Dance is its depiction of how the characters' deeply rooted cultural traditions are passed down across generations and preserved over time, existing within the fabric of their everyday lives. To Frank and Nancy, Roki’s Cayuga heritage is something to acknowledge, but not fully embrace. It’s a heartbreaking way to reduce what is essentially someone else’s entire world into something manageable and muted. At every turn, Frank and Nancy uphold their own white systems and institutions, and in doing so undercut Jax and Roki’s humanity. 

Apple TV+

Throughout all of this, there is an undeniable string pulling between Jax and Roki—not only are they inherently connected, but they serve to bring each other back to themselves and their community. When someone asks Jax if there is a father in Roki’s life, she basically spits at them—”it’s just the three of us,” she says. The three of them—Jax, Tawi, and Roki. This is the family unit; of course it is. I love how Jax’s status as aunt is revered so ardently. At one point late in the film, Roki asks Jax what the word for auntie translates to in Cayuga. “Little mother,” Jax replies, “other mother.” Jax holds all of the same responsibilities toward Roki as her own mother, and she doesn’t take that lightly. This felt so refreshing to see. For many queer individuals, these are the kinds of connections that will allow us to pass something down to the next generations. Seeing that relationship upheld with such esteem touched me deeply and made me consider the lack of this kind of representation in media. And more importantly, this story highlights the steadfast responsibility Indigenous women feel towards one another in the face of an apathetic world. 

Fancy Dance is not a fussy film—its intentions are clear and well executed. Come for Lily Gladstone in a ribbed tank, and stay for all the intricate, subtle ways it’s able to hold many truths at once. 

You can stream Fancy Dance on Apple TV+. 

One flew over the what’s nest?? Next week on The Yearning, Meg reviews Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo.