"War Pony" - Film Review
War Pony is the directorial debut from Riley Keough and Gina Gammell. The story was partially written by Keough and Gammell, but was based on the stories of Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, who were extras in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey. The two formed a quick bond with Keough, who then introduced them to Gammell. Over the course of three years, the foursome worked to develop this story of people living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. War Pony is the result of those years of work: a story about the intertwined lives of two Lakota boys living on the reservation.
Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) is in his early 20s and dreams of something better than the life he’s currently living. He’s always looking for new ways to earn money to support his family, but jobs are scarce. Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) is twelve years old and desperate to be treated like an adult. They live on the same reservation and are tied together by their desire to have money and stability, but they only share the screen in the film’s final moments. Instead, Keough and Gammell weave the two stories together to give a robust look at the day-to-day of reservation life.
Some know Keough as the granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, but she’s cut her teeth in the world of independent cinema. She has created languid character studies where she portrayed young women who never seem to be having a good time. Everything she’s learned from those experiences on set comes out in full force with War Pony. It’s self-assured and striking, as demonstrated by the Camera d’Or win at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. War Pony captures life on the reservation without frills or exaggerations. It’s simply a glimpse into these people’s lives. The audience spends two hours with them, immersed in their world. The moments of levity mix with the lows, existing in tandem with each other. There are hundreds of years of colonialism and systemic wounds on display here, but that is not the sole means of defining Indigenous people.
Protagonist Pictures
Even though War Pony is anchored by the Matho and Bill characters, the film is truly an ensemble piece composed almost entirely of non-actors. Their groups of friends feel grounded in reality, as if they have always been friends and the camera just happened to capture them together. All of the performances have a natural quality to them that’s hard to achieve with actors who have hundreds of roles under their belts. It’s something that might not be able to be fully taught, an intrinsic ability to be fully present and honest, even when there’s a camera in your face.
As is the case with movies that offer a slice of life, the ending here is difficult to land. How do you wrap things up in a way that makes sense when the film wasn’t working toward something specific? Films of this kind aren’t ruled by the hero’s-journey archetype or the three-act structure. They are simply a look at a period of time in a life. That life existed before the movie began and continues after it’s over, so there’s no good way to decide when it’s time for the credits to roll. War Pony may not have answered that question perfectly, but that doesn’t take away from what it achieves.
War Pony is a stunning introduction to Keough and Gammell as directorial voices. This film, though, as they have said time and again, is a collaborative effort with their co-writers Reddy and Bob. That spirit carries through to the film itself where the audience can feel the sense of community and connection that exists within these characters as they grapple with their futures. War Pony is a vivid portrait of loss, hope for the ever-elusive future, and the ways communities come together and fall apart.
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