Oh, to Be Young, Kidnapped, and On the Run: “Silver Star” Review
The great American road trip has long been a source of inspiration for filmmakers. The open road allows people to cross paths who otherwise may never have. It’s an equalizer in a way other modes of transportation aren’t, and it’s a distinctly American framework for a story. No one loves a car trip like the USA, and while directors Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis are French, they’ve captured the spirit of the genre in their found-family crime flick, Silver Star.
Silver Star opens with Billie (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson) on horseback. In voiceover, she tells the viewer she’s going to die soon by a gunshot, but it won’t be the end of her. Billie comes from a long line of soldiers, and while that legacy is important to her, she’s estranged from her family. When she’s released from jail, Billie learns that her family is in a tough financial spot. This leads her to attempt to rob a bank. As things go sideways, Billie takes a pregnant teenage girl named Franny (Grace Van Dien) hostage. Now the two have begrudgingly become their own version of Bonnie and Clyde as they run from the cops, each with her own motive.
courtesy of Silver Star
Billie and Franny are your classic pairing of two people who have nothing in common, yet find themselves inexplicably drawn to one another. Billie is stoic, yet rash. She wants to take care of her family above all, but her reactive nature often puts her at odds with them. Franny is chatty, yet pensive. She’ll talk anyone’s ear off, but she’s always scheming. As a pregnant teenager who just lost her job and plans to raise her child alone, Franny always has to be one step ahead. The friendship began when Billie forcibly kidnapped Franny, so they get off to a rocky start, but the heart of Silver Star is what they build together in this life on the road.
Courtesy of Silver Star
Silver Star is as much Billie’s story as it is Franny’s. While the audience meets Billie first, Franny is never the supporting character. They’re two young people born into a world that has failed them from the moment they opened their eyes, and they’re desperate not to repeat the mistakes their families made. Together, Billie and Franny find compassion and intimacy in a way that’s new to them. For the first time, their kind actions are matched. They care if the other person has eaten, if they have a bed, and, most minimally, if they’re okay. It’s a consideration they’re not used to, but one they slowly accept. They’re understandably scared, because everyone in their lives who was supposed to care for them has abandoned them.
Queer stories like this one aren’t often told in the context of the classic American road trip. People like Billie and Franny are regularly excluded from these sorts of desperate hero’s journeys. The fact that Silver Star centers its story on the relationship between Billie and Franny places them in a conversation far larger than themselves. The road trip movie has always been about reinvention, and in the case of Silver Star, it’s a rebirth as well. A means of finding a place in this world through a connection with someone else.
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