Songs My Brothers Taught Me

Johnny lives on the Pine Ridge reservation, is about to finish high school and plans to leave for Los Angeles with his girlfriend. His father dies in a fire; it emerges that the man had twenty-five children by nine different women. Johnny's younger sister Jashaun has no interest in leaving. The subject is not poverty but leaving and staying both being losses. The film does not vindicate Johnny or romanticise Jashaun; each makes their own decision and the narration passes no comment. The form is close to documentary. The camera watches the landscape and daily work at length: horses, roadside, cheap liquor sales, church. There is little dialogue and it is naturalistic. It is Chloé Zhao's first feature. She shot it at Pine Ridge, assembled the cast from people living there, and the young leads were not professional actors. She continued the same method on her next film and it became her known manner. John Reddy and Jashaun St. John lead, with Irene Bedard as the mother. Who it is for: viewers who like slow, observational American independent cinema. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events; the film records a place more than it tells a story.