Wildhood: Young Mi'kmaws on the Run Make For a Moving Road-Movie Experience
By Thom Ernst
Rating: A-minus
Which comes first? The road-movie or the coming-of-age story? Either way, in director Brennan Hannam's Wildhood - their sort-of-but-not-really debut feature (reportedly, a lesser film that Hannam hopes to bury is out there somewhere) - the film works.
As a road movie, Hannam's film has a rightful place along the back routes of some of the cinemas' most impressive road pictures, trekking along the highways and dirt roads, on foot and in a car.
There is a likeness to Powwow Highway (1988) in ways beyond the two films' Indigenous connections. In equal amounts, one can look to Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) or Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider (1969) as a way of examining a personal identity with home and just a little bit of perceived, although inaccurate, lawlessness.
Phillip Lewitski, Avery Winters-Anthony and Joshua Odjick on a journey of self-discovery in Wildhood. Photo by Riley Smith, courtesy of Mongrel Media.
As a coming-of-age film, the movie has some of the same flavours as Transamerica (2005) but again, not solely based on that narrative's explorations of sexual awakenings.
And it might be strained, but I think I could hammer out an argument that there is The Wizard of Oz (1939) in the picture, insomuch as it takes leaving home to find home, and that the past is a way of foraging towards the future.
But Wildhood does not seem fixated on any pre-paved roadmap, even though there might be a few familiar stops along the way. The stakes here are relatively low beyond an initial call-to-journey.
Link (Phillip Lewitski) is a young man who leaves his abusive home searching for his Mi'kmaw heritage and a birth mother he's been told is dead. Link is the kind of misunderstood teen given to spurts of lawlessness as a reaction to neglect. He takes with him his younger half-brother, Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony).
The boys flee one confrontation only to discover many more down the road. That's not to say the journey away from one towards another is futile or unnecessary. The fleeing is safer than the abuse they’d experienced at the hands of their father (another dark and bang-on performance from Joel Thomas Hynes). Truly his escape with his brother in tow is both necessary and brave.
(A sidenote: Hynes is great, but as good as he is, perhaps it's time for him to consider appearing in a light musical comedy--plus the man can sing!)
The stakes here are relatively low. There is no one fast on their heels and no spritely moments of comic mischief to set the banjos plucking as they make a hasty escape--something that even Arthur Penn's violent depiction of Bonnie & Clyde (1967) couldn't resist.
The film continues along a road of revelations, both fleeting and consequential taking its characters on a journey of discovery, which involves the odd dichotomy of pressing forward to reach the past to further push forward.
It would be easy to simply recount the stages and progressions of growing up, coming age, self-discovery, and sexual awakenings. Wildhood is all that, but it also dips into identity issues that run deeper than what is affected visual clues and by the preference of touch.
As Link, Lewitski grabs the screen with a James Dean brood and a Brad Pitt (circa Thelma and Louise) coy charm. No less engaging is Joshua Odjick as Pasmay, the young man who joins the brothers on their journey.
Lewitsky and Odjick are natural on camera. They enter the story on the strength of their relationships with ease and comfort; not an easy task for young actors with limited life experience, let alone acting experience. Their characters live in the realm of the moment; things happen and then don't. Occurrences either make them stronger or are eventually forgotten.
Hannam themself, a two-spirited Mi'kmaw, is a talent in control of their work. The confidence they put to screen comes through in subsequent conversations with them outside of the movie. Hannam might argue differently, having known and managed the compromises that no one sees on this side of the screen. It's part of the gig to conceal the magic tricks of filmmaking. But what does get up on the screen, captured in the performances and in the frame of the director's eye, shows a formidable truth.
It’s a truth not based on facts--whether the film has even minuscule personal truth, I don't know--but on the truth of character and of the world that Hannam creates, even when the film takes on a dreamlike caress.
It’s not surprising that Wildhood is piling up awards and nominations. The film is nominated for Best Picture (among other nominations) at the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards (CSA). Lewitski is nominated for Best Actor, and Odjick has a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Hannam also recently earned recognition from the Toronto Film Critics Association with the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize of $10,000,
Wildhood is directed by Bretten Hannam and stars Phillip Lewitski, Joshua Odjick, Avery Winters-Anthony, Jordan Poole, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Michael Greyeyes. It opens in select theatres on March 10.