Special thanks to the Imaginative Film Festival in Toronto, Canada for inviting me to watch Fancy Dance! Synopsis: Following her sister's disappearance, a Native American hustler kidnaps her niece from the child's white grandparents and sets out for the state powwow in hopes of keeping what is left of their family intact. (Source: IMDb) Director Erica Tremblay presents such a unique story that discusses native land, native language, and the native community all through the beautiful relationship between an aunt and her niece. The film really starts off by slowly setting up the mood, tone, and vibe that it will follow throughout the whole film. It then reaches the middle of it which can be considered the weakest as it loses its balance in terms of hooking the audience to the story and the characters. However, the film gets itself together back again with the amazing final act that sets up the beautiful and emotional ending and the conclusion of the beautiful relationship between the aunt and her niece. Director Erica Tremblay and cinematographer Carolina Costa truly choose a bunch of different elements that will help portray and deliver the most accurate feelings that each character is going through using visuals, directing techniques, and camera movements. Two particular shots that grabbed my attention, one being an "inside the frame" shot of Jax (played by Lilly Gladstone) being in a phone call which captured her through a frame of a window. The shot added more nervousness into the scene by making it seem as a very narrow frame and the character is trapped in that small window frame. Another shot is a tense scene where one character finds out something that is not suppose to be shared with her from another character in which a line is visually shown using a wall's corner where each character is standing on each side separating the two of them in half as if their relationship together is affected. It really reminded me how Bong Joon Ho used lines to separate the characters in Parasite (2019). Lily Gladstone's acting and portraying of the character Jax is on point. The character has a cold heart with lots of worries, yet is a caring person and is an influencer specifically to her niece. It sets Lily Gladstone on the spotlight specifically on her most recent film Killers of The Flower Moon (2023) by Martin Scorsese. Isabel Deroy-Olson introduces to the audience an innocent niece who's mother is missing as this is the actress' first feature film. This being her first feature film really tells a lot about her talent as her portraying of the different emotions and the optimistic daughter in hopes of her mother to be found. Those emotions really reached audience members throughout the whole this film. Fancy Dance ends off with a great closing credits song with beautiful lyrics that reflects on all the lives that we lost in which the lyrics say: "Let's put our minds together and reflect on those who have passed, those who are up the sky, those who are now living peacefully." Watched on Tuesday October 17th, 2023 Format: regular theatre @ Imaginative Film Festival Rating: 8/10.

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