This was exactly what I expected, and a lovely film to boot. A slice of life character piece about 2 boys drifting through the world and the realistic tribulations on the way. There is no melodrama, Hollywood ending or traditional film-making trickery: merely a well-constructed, immaculately observed and tender without being saccharine film about life. It's raw and gritty without being exploitative, the world and performances naturalistic, and it all comes together on a hopeful note about the future. The 2 leads are fantastic, Bapteise Whiting in particular is wonderful, and Riley Keough manages an iron-clad directorial debut which doesn't feel exploitative or steeped in misery porn like so many white-people movies about Native Americans - it helps that its crew, writers, co director and cast are made up of Native American actors. There are cute, endearing little touches ("I don't speak Lakota", the broken wing mirror, the line on the wall about Buffalo hunters, the 2 boys in red hoodies) which come together as a bow on the top and make me excited for what she does next.
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