Netflix does a good job most of the time at giving scrolling viewers a tiny clip from the films and TV they are interested in. The Netflix goblins usually pick a clip from either the funniest part of an episode or a part that reels you in, yet tells you nothing about what it’s about. I fell for this silly trick a couple nights ago as I was scrolling for a break from studying. It was a clip from a new film called Frybread Face and Me. The clip was a scene between two kids in a dry desert, one intensely scolding the other. I would later find out that dry desert was their grandmother’s sheep farm in Arizona on a Navajo reservation. In that small clip I saw the potential of a great watch, so I clicked, and honestly I was not disappointed. 

The film is set in 1990 and is about a San Francisco raised, Fleetwood Mac obsessed boy named Benny who is of Navajo descent and is forced to spend the summer living with his grandmother who refuses to speak english, and his uncle, on a reservation in Arizona. There he meets his cousin, Fry Bread Face, who helps introduce him to a culture he hadn’t had the chance to understand in San Francisco. While this is a coming of age story, it feels almost like a documentation of the filmmaker’s actual childhood, as the film is semi-autobiographical in nature and takes several ideas from his real life. 

I enjoy films like this one, that just feel so natural and don’t need extravagant sets and intricate plot lines to keep the audience engaged. It depicts real people in their real lives. Most of the actions on screen are not super interesting or crazy (although there are some exciting parts) on the surface, but do more work around the dynamics between characters on and off screen. I also don’t know a lot about Navajo Native American culture and so it was really interesting seeing Benny experiencing traditions on “the res”. These traditions were displayed, not in a way that writer/director Billy Luthers was attempting to “teach” the audience about this culture, but in a more domestic and natural way, such as watching Benny’s grandmother weave a carpet. I don’t think a lot of media displays these kinds of interactions of Native people just living their daily lives. The film lends itself very well to its desert landscape and western-genre leaning lifestyle in this way. The setting illuminates the story, giving the feeling of Benny almost in isolation with his extended family.

This film, while it was about Benny and is described as his “cultural awakening,” I think that awakening is more internal for each character, rather than on screen in front of your face. While we see Benny’s wonder on screen, it is less about the culture and more about the family behind the culture, his cousin especially. If there is any reason to watch this film, it is for the titular “Frybread Face” who is played by Charley Hogan. In a way, this feels more like her story than Benny’s and I really respect Luther for that choice. Luther made her story very powerful in her influence on Benny and displaying the ways that she copes with her reality, her outlets, and how her family treats her. While she is a title character, there really would be no film without her. This film also explores themes of family acceptance, queerness in families, and the ways in which we sometimes leave our culture behind. 

I really recommend this film for people who want a chill night, those who are longing for 90s nostalgia, and fans of the “coming of age story”. Overall this was a very enjoyable watch and a great debut for Luther, I can’t wait to see what else he creates.