The Business of Fancydancing

Starring:Evan Adams, Michelle St. John, Gene Tagaban, Swil Kanim, Rebecca Carroll, Cynthia Geary, Leo Rossi (II), Kevin Phillip, Elaine Miles, Arthur Tulee, Jim Boyd (IV), Jennifer Kreisberg, Ron Otis, William Joseph Elk III
Director: Sherman Alexie
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

As seen in this ambitious low-budget feature, The Business of Fancydancing can be very tricky indeed. Shot on digital video, the directorial debut of novelist-poet Sherman Alexie is both profound and problematic, embracing the emotional legacy of Alexie's Native American heritage (and the rich layers of his literary work) while displaying the stylistic pitfalls of a first-time effort. What emerges, most effectively, is the bicultural identity crisis faced by many Native Americans--in this case a celebrated gay poet named Seymour (played by Evan Adams, costar of the Alexie-scripted Smoke Signals) whose ambitions transcend the "Rez" (reservation) where he was raised. Though occasionally hobbled by amateur performances, this is a deeply moving drama about reconciling one's birthright with a quest for new horizons, and Alexie poses difficult questions without settling on trite or convenient answers. For anyone who has ever felt removed from their cultural background, this Business offers a resonant ring of truth. --Jeff Shannon

Description

While in college, Spokane Reservation best friends Aristotle and Seymour took different paths. Aristotle went back to "the rez," while Seymour began a new life for himself as an openly gay poet. Sixteen years later, the two are reunited, but mutual feelings of hurt and resentment stand in the way of their friendship.

Customer Reviews:

Just okay.......2007-04-22

Yea, I really liked Smoke Signals. A lot. Love Alexie's poetry, too. This movie has its moments, and thank god there are no bad wigs in this one, but it seemed too self conscious and redundant in some of the themes of SA's first film. I did enjoy the poetry, but it seemed an easy way to get poems into a film--write a screenplay about a poet. Still, good acting, well filmed, and good enough to keep me watching until the end.

Hey, Suyapi!.......2007-04-10

Alexie's second film, and the first one in which he served as both screenwriter and director, is quite simply one of the most intriguing and compelling works of art--in any medium--of the past decade. Alexie's tragicomic humor and insightful wisdom endure the pain and sadness of Mouse's untimely death. Alexie shows us that crosscultural mourning practices (from Spokane Indian chants and sweetgrass through readings from 2nd Chronicles by a Unitarian minister to the chanting of the Jewish Kaddish prayer for the dead) help us to grieve, to reflect, and to celebrate our shared condition of being human on a very small planet.

fancy dancing Review.......2006-08-17

Good movie as far as the story line goes- Shows that being gay trancends all races. Many indian movies depict scenes that go back & forth throughout time but in the case of this movie the shifting back & forth kinda complicated matters somewhat. It appears to be a movie that may require several viewings to be completely understood.

layers of meaning and continuous contextual threads.......2005-12-16

I may have watched this movie 5 or 6 times. Every time, I see more references, more allusions, and I intend to continue watching it. Here is a list of my impressions.
Fancydancing as a euphemism for the pressures of trying to keep hopping through life in time to the accelerating beat while staying on your toes, no misteps allowed, and when the music suddenly stops, you must also stop, or lose. Trained to stop on red, or to hold oneself back, whether anyone is there to enforce it or not, or whether they have the means to keep going or not. The white girlfriend of Mouse who has run to the Rez to hide, and speaks more like someone on the Rez than does Seymour, is more a part of the community than he. The graininess of many of the Rez scenes contrasting with the ethereal quality of those in the city. Gallows humor, and the most realistic funeral I've ever seen on film. I love the interview sections, representing a distillation of the outside (read: non-Native, literary, academic, etc.) critique he has received, and his reply, so I differ from another reviewer on that. And then it gives me goosebumps to watch Swill Kanim in the Lysol sandwich scene.
Of course there is more, but these are what most come to mind. This is a movie for people who like to think and feel.

A Meditation on Roots.......2005-10-31

While we as a country are discovering/acknowledging the struggles of the different sects within the Middle East, tribal differences that are longstanding and divisive and painful, along comes another sensitive story about Native Americans in this country and how the scars of past and ongoing abuses of our 'reservation resolution' have affected the original peoples of this land. Sherman Alexie, a fine poet and novelist, has transformed his written works into a film that showers the viewer with insights into a problem about which few are cognizant - intratribal differences that provide schisms within the only root that binds.

Seymour Poltakin (the very talented Evan Adams) is a famous poet who happens to be both Native American and gay. He is called back to his Reservation in Spokane, Washington for the funeral of his childhood friend Mouse (Swil Kanim) only to confront all of the reasons he has left the Reservation for the 'white man's world' where he has found both financial and emotional success. Seymour's best friend Aristotle (Gene Tagaban) had originally left the Reservation to go to college with Seymour, but quickly soured to the prejudiced outside world and returned to his Reservation and to an unfortunate life of alcoholism and drug abuse. The bulk of the storyline revolves around how these two once devoted friends parted ways, the philosophies of each are explored, and though Seymour finds moments of love in his home space, he is still content to return to his white man lover and his life he has chosen.

There are many very tender and moving moments in this film: when Seymour is in conversation with Agnes (Michelle St. John) and when Agnes intones the Indian chants and songs at the funeral; Seymour's dialogues with his lover; scenes of quiet while Aristotle abuses himself with drugs; the weaving in and out of the beautiful dancing that flows through the film. The problem with the movie is the disparity of approaches in telling the story: an interview situation between Rebecca Carroll and Evan Adams is well written but breaks the mood of the poetic form of the story. The film is obviously low budget and in this case, for this viewer, the rough hand-held camera technique adds a quality of reality to what we are watching.

The overall effect at the end of the film is a pang of pain in the heart having witnessed the generations of 'isolation' and the segregation of the Native Americans into spaces both geographical and sociological that have undermined a tremendously valuable asset to our history. That role of shame is one that will never leave us, and it is a gift that artists like Sherman Alexie can bring this to the public's attention. Recommended. Grady Harp, October 05

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