War Pony (2023)

This starts off as quite an interesting observation of two young men growing up on the Pine Ridge reservation for the Oglala Lakota tribe in rural Dakota. It principally centres on the young "Bill" (JoJo Bapteise Whiting) who is juggling two girlfriends, two young children, and aspirations to buy and breed a rather mangy looking poodle! When he happens by a successful farmer whose car has broken down by the side of the road, he sees a way to make some extra cash. The two men click and pretty soon "Bill" is packaging turkey jerky by the bucketload! Meantime, the younger "Matho" (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) has been thrown out of his father's home after he and his pals compromised his cocaine business by adding a little epsom salts to their distribution network! Both stories see the men and their friends and families trying to get by in a community that seems to exist for the sake of it. Poodles notwithstanding, there seems little structure to their lives nor much point to anything. Opportunities are sparse and family loyalties only appear to endure when convenient. It's actually quite a depressing story that I couldn't help wonder might not have been worthy of watching at all, had it not been for the native American aspects to the production and plot. Despite that increasingly prevailing downbeat theme, there is something likeable about Whiting's characterisation of the wayward "Bill" - a man who does seem to at least want to escape the relentlessness of their existence. The ending is weak, though, and frankly really quite daft and as an whole, the film does drag a bit across the two hours of rather soporifically scored, slowly paced, drama. It's worth a watch, but it's not great.