Frybread Face and Me (2023) Movie Drinking Game
Down a Shot: every time a sheep appears onscreen
Down a Shot: every time Jeff Bridges (either the doll or the actor) appears onscreen.
Down a Shot: for every Fleetwood Mac name-drop
Down a Shot: every time you learn something new about Navajo culture from Grandma Lorraine’s weaving and hair-washing sessions.
By: Vidal D’costa (A Toast) –
Benny is the kind of city-bred boy who falls asleep to dreams of Fleetwood Mac concerts, instead of counting sheep. However, this dream is shattered when his dysfunctional parents send him away to spend the summer with his Navajo kin, on a reservation where sheep run amok as far as the eye can see, and where refrains of Fleetwood Mac are replaced by reruns of the Jeff Bridges starrer Starman on VHS. Rest assured, it’s going to be a life-changing summer for young Benny who learns to reconnect with his roots, and mend fences… both literally and metaphorically.
A Toast
Filmmaker Billy Luther crafts a passion project that feels rather universal- With even its portrayal of the cultural significance of hair in the Native American community feeling reminiscent to the practice of ‘kesh’ (maintaining long hair) that’s adhered to by the Sikhs here in India, which is just one such instance.
Considering that this film festival favourite is backed by fellow indigenous storyteller and none other than one of my personal favorites, Taika Waititi (credited as an executive producer), it’s also hard not to focus on the similarities it shares with the Kiwi filmmaker’s own directorial ventures such as Boy (2010), with both movies not shying from addressing the mutual theme of ingrained toxic masculinity via the archetype of an embittered, self-appointed ‘man of the house’- in the instance of Boy, it’s Alamein who oozes faux machismo and is the most delulu gang leader who ever lived, while in Frybread Face…, viewers are introduced to the sullen but socially conditioned wannabe cowboy, Uncle Marvin (Martin Sensmeier leaving a lasting impression with his performance), who breaks out the stink-eye and a belittling attitude every time Benny breaks out his dolls/action figures at the breakfast table, as if determined to single-handedly continue a long lineage of regressive, old-fashioned gender norms.
Further down the road, the movie amplifies the need for both the young and older men in the family to do away with their insecurities and embrace the ‘feminine’ traits that the narrow-minded Marvin considers undesirable, as depicted by the wholesome make-up sessions featuring Benny’s cool, hip, and probably sapphic Aunt Lucy prepping Benny and his cousin Dawn (the titular “Frybread Face”) to be the next ‘Miss Navajo’ , and then also reflected through Grandma Lorraine inculcating meaningful life lessons on femininity within their culture, and its correlation with the loom.
One can also draw comparison with this independent outing’s more mainstream cousin, Sterlin Harjo’s Hulu series Reservation Dogs (no surprises for guessing that Waititi played a part in greenlighting this must watch show, too), with both doubling as a subtle, sincere, altogether eye-opening commentary on the socio-cultural disconnect faced by various generations, and the privileges that the natives are robbed of that also heavily plays a part in driving a wedge between clans. Characters such as Benny and Dawn’s Americanized relatives, Uncle Roger and his wife Sharon (whom Benny jokingly refers to as ‘Navajo’s very own Ronald McDonalds’) who turn up their noses at the humility of life on the reservation and who’ve adopted whitewashed standards of living to the extent of growing distant from their own culture and traditions act as core examples of such a jarring shift within the community that was once tight-knit (no pun intended).
The use of the native language is another refreshing aspect which lends authenticity to this well-woven indie feature, while also highlighting the language barrier between Benny and his grandmother. The one-sided conversations between this duo also harkens back to the Oscar-nominated Minari (2020) wherein a Korean grandmother faced a similar constraint with her grandchildren who are raised in the States. In Frybread Face… though, Grandma Lorraine’s (played by real-life Navajo weaver Sarah H. Natani) refusal to learn English isn’t just a language barrier, but more so a heartbreaking allusion to the aftermath of colonisation, particularly the unfair hierarchy resulting from a coloniser language being infringed/imposed upon the natives.
Aside from sharing a common thread to all these other hard-hitting indigenous stories, the characters in this movie, such as Aunt Lucy, even share a more meta connection with Starman‘s lead Jeff Bridges- with parallels drawn to the latter, a fictional extraterrestrial solemnly taking leave of his earthly love interest to return to his home planet, and the former, a young woman who earns her keep by selling handmade bead jewelry on the reservation leaving this humble life behind in order to pursue more ambitious prospects as a beautician in the city.
Lastly, the magnetic camaraderie between Keir Tallman (Benny), Charley Hogan (Dawn/Frybread Face), and Kahara Hodges (Aunt Lucy) shines through, keeping one hooked to this coming of age, and the trio’s interactions throughout the movie are simply endearing to watch.
Verdict
Overall, Frybread Face and Me isn’t just an homage to its peers (be it Boy, Minari, or Reservation Dogs), but also works as a compelling standalone piece. In fact, it’s an even bigger homage to the ‘odd forks’, such as Benny, Aunt Lucy, and Dawn, all of whom defy labels rather than letting themselves be defined by them, thus planting the seed for a far kinder world that their next of kin can partake in and hopefully, where the odds aren’t stacked… or rather, rigged against them.
