CANNES – It may seem obvious, but sometimes combining two compelling stories doesn’t lead to an overall more captivating film. That’s the primary takeaway from Gina Gammell and Riley Keough‘s somewhat messy “War Pony,” which debuted at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival this weekend. At its best, a welcome addition to the increasing number of contemporary Native American stories seen in the films such as “Songs My Brother Told Me,” “Wild Indian” and FX’s “Reservation Dogs.” At worst, it’s a disjointed narrative that sadly overstays its welcome.
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Set in the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota, “War Pony” follows two neighbors who are not only on decidedly different paths but unaware of the drama unfolding in each of their lives. The twenty-something Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is a father of two boys who is in love with one of his son’s mothers and, surprise, wants little to do with the other. He’s primarily focused on breeding a large poodle dog he’s bought, a decision he thinks will be decidedly lucrative until he finds himself employed by a local rich Turkey rancher. A definite scammer, the white businessman uses Bill to transport his sexual flings on and off the reservation. Matho (Ladainian Crazy Thunder) is a 12-year-old who, along with his rambunctious school-age friends, discovers his father’s stache of meth hidden in their home. When his friends convince him to peddle it, his life is forever changed in the most harrowing and frightening of circumstances.
The film was developed after Keough met screenwriters Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy while shooting Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” in South Dakota in 2015. The pair collaborated with Gammell to tell stories of reservation life they felt were lost in depictions of their people in the media. While the two storylines eventually intersect (basically at the end of the film), they are so tonally different it effectively hinders the impact of Matho’s journey in particular. Bill, played with star-making charisma by Whiting, is a ball of energy on a constant (and often entertaining) roller coaster of adventures and familial conflict that never really get him down. Matho, on the other hand, is going through something utterly traumatic. A story that needs more focus and nuance than works in this context. It’s not that Reddy, Bob, Gammell, and Keough are unaware of the real-life consequences of Matho’s journey, but they simply can’t give it the air it needs. Somehow, young Thunder delivers a moving performance through it all.
The filmmakers are assisted by David Gallego’s impressive lensing amongst an obvious Arnold and Chloe Zhao-influenced aesthetic.
It’s sort of shocking to realize that “War Pony” is the sort of film that would have genuinely had a bigger impact five or six years ago. That it seems decidedly less distinctive isn’t meant to imply that there are enough stories about indigenous Americans in the media. There are absolutely not. Not at all. But it does suggest that these two particular narratives could have been more dynamic if given an opportunity to breathe on their own. [C+]
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