“Fancy Dance”, which was released on Apple TV+ in last month, is a little family drama revolving around one flawed Native American woman’s struggle over her urgent family matter. While occasionally reminiscent of many other similar American independent films such as Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” (2010), the movie has its own specific character details to be observed and appreciated, and the result is a small but intimate film which deserves more attention in my trivial opinion.

The early part of the film gradually establishes how things have been rather desperate for Jax (Lily Gladstone), a young Native American woman who has taken care of her young niece Roki (Isabel DeRov-Olson) for a while instead of her sister, who suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason around two weeks ago. While telling anything about her sister’s disappearance to Roki at all, Jax has been trying to locate her sister’s whereabouts, but both the reservation police and FBI are not so interested in doing their jobs just because her sister is another usual case of a Native American women gone missing, and that surely makes Jax all the more frustrated.

At least, she and Roki are happy to be together, though Jax still does tell the truth to her niece. Because Roki is looking forward to attending the upcoming traditional dance festival held in a nearby city along with her mother, Jax must really find any clue to wherever her sister is, and the situation becomes more urgent when she and Roki are visited by a social worker assigned to Roki after her sister disappeared. Due to Jax’s considerable criminal record, the social worker subsequently concludes that Roki must be sent to her white grandfather and his second wife, and it seems that there is nothing Jax can do under this circumstance.

However, knowing well how much her niece wants to go to that traditional dance festival, Jax eventually decides to do something quite risky. Not long after Roki is sent to her grandfather’s house, she sneaks into the house for taking away her niece, and Roki has no problem with that, though she knows that she and her aunt will probably get into a serious trouble because of that. Not so surprisingly, the local police begin to look for them once Roki’s grandfather reports the incident to the local police, and there is a bitter irony in how they and FBI instantly respond to the incident compared to their rather lazy handling of the case of Jax’s missing sister.

Meanwhile, Jax keeps trying to delve into that case even as hiding from the police search. Thanks to her stripper girlfriend and a reservation police officer who is incidentally Jax’s brother, she comes to get a bit of information, and then she goes to a certain criminal figure who may know something about her sister’s disappearance. While this criminal figure in question is not eager to share any information with her, Jax tries as much as possible, and she eventually get a little clue which may actually help the investigation.

As it becomes more apparent that something quite bad happened to her sister, it also becomes more difficult for Jax to hide the fact from her niece. While mostly following her aunt without any question, Roki starts to sense that her aunt is not telling everything to her, and we are not so surprised by what she impulsively decides to do something unwise when she is supposed to steal a car key at one point in the middle of the story.

What eventually happens along the story is rather predictable, but the screenplay by director Erica Tremblay and her co-writer Miciana Alise keeps focusing on its characters as before. Although it stumbles a bit during its last act, it still cares about the drama unfolded between its two main characters, and then it touchingly reaches to the expected dramatic finale with enough emotion to hold our attention.

Above all, the movie is supported well by the two good performances at its center. Lily Gladstone, who had a fabulous year thanks to her two excellent performances in Morrisa Maltz’s little independent film “The Unknown Country” (2022) and Martin Scorsese’s another knockout work “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023), did a terrific job of embodying her flawed but complex human character, and she and her young co-star Isabel DeRoy-Olson are flawless in their frequent interactions throughout the film. As reflected by the amusing opening scene where they commit a criminal act together for earning their meager living, Jax may not be a good role model for her niece, but she loves and cares a lot about her niece nonetheless, and Gladstone and DeRoy-Olson are often touching as ably conveying to us their characters’ strong relationship.

Around Gladstone and DeRoy-Olson, Tremblay places several solid supporting performers to notice. Ryan Begay, Crystle Lightning, Tamara Podemski, and Audrey Wasilewski are well-cast in their respective parts, and Shea Whigham, who plays Jax’s estranged white father, is particularly good in one particular scene between him and Gladstone.

Overall, “Fancy Dance” is a modest but engaging human drama to admire for its sensitive storytelling and commendable performances, and Tremblay, who previously made a couple of documentaries while also writing and directing several episodes of the acclaimed TV drama series “Reservation Dogs”, makes a promising feature film debut here. This is surely another interesting work to be added to the growing list of notable Native American films during last several years, and I recommend you to check it out someday.