The interlocking stories of two young Oglala Lakota men growing up on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The directorial debut of actress Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, ‘War Pony’ is a movie about the intertwining lives of two young Lakota boys who live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It is a film about the poverty, lack of opportunities and difficulties growing up with broken families in such surroundings, as we follow Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) and Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) as they try to make sense of the world they live in and forge a path forward. If it was a British film it’d be called a kitchen sink drama, and I thought ‘War Pony’ was a gritty and authentic portrayal of these characters lives.

Bill is 23-years-old and already has two children (to two different mothers), and his ambition is to make as much money as possible to provide them with a good life. When we first meet him he has a number of schemes or hustles on the go, but after meeting a local, wealthier rancher called Tim (Sprague Hollander), he may have found a job that’ll help keep him on the straight and narrow. In the case of Matho, he’s a typical 12-year-old who desperately wants to be older, but in that quest to be man he makes a series of rash decisions that put him in danger – not aided by a lack of support at home. Following these two young lives, there is a danger that ‘War Pony’ could have slipped into poverty porn but I felt the material was well handled and it’s aided by a writing team that includes two individuals familiar with this place and these people (Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy). Keough met them both whilst filming ‘American Honey’, a film that has definitely influenced this both in its use of rap music on the soundtrack and in its depiction of the aimlessness that impacts on young American lives outside of the big cities.

If there’s a criticism of ‘War Pony’ it’s that it doesn’t quite know how to bring its two stories together and when they do intersect it feels forced more than organic, but when the individual tales are as compelling as they are, it’s not of major importance. ‘War Pony’ is an accomplished debut feature that tells an authentic tale of disenfranchised youth in a less travelled part of America, and I was very impressed.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Riley Keough and Gina Gammell

Starring: Jojo Bapteise Whiting, Ladainian Crazy Thunder, Jesse Schmockel and Sprague Hollander

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt16227002/