Sundance review: 'Wild Indian' is an absorbing story of cousins, on and off the reservation, and the tragedy that unites them

‘Wild Indian’

★★★

Appearing in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 87 minutes.

——

The psychological thriller “Wild Indian” is an engrossing look at two men’s lives, diverged since a shared moment in their boyhood.

On the Anishinaabe reservation in Wisconsin in the late ‘80s, Makwa (Phoenix Wilson) and Ted-O (Julian Gopal) are cousins, about middle-school age. Makwa has had a rough life, beaten by his father and belittled by his mother, who are constantly fighting each other. To escape, he goes over to Ted-O’s house, where they practice target shooting with Ted-O’s father’s rifle. One day, something horrible happens involving that rifle.

The movie then skips ahead to 2019, some 30-plus years later. Makwa, now Michael (Michael Greyeyes) , lives in the Bay Area, a successful businessman with a beautiful house, an even more beautiful wife, Greta (Kate Bosworth), and a baby boy, Francis. His work buddy (Jesse Eisenberg) is sure Michael will get the promotion for which he’s angling.

Ted-O (Chaske Spencer) is just getting paroled after a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking. He lands with his sister, Cammy (Lisa Cromarty) and her 5-year-old boy. Seemingly on impulse, he gets a pickup truck and starts driving to the Bay Area, for a long-delayed and much-dreaded reunion with his cousin.

Director-writer Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. creates a spare storyline that serves as a clothesline onto which he hangs his observations about modern Native Americans, those who stay on the reservation and those who flee from it. The key are the performances, particularly from Greyeyes, who practically vibrates from the internal stresses of keeping his cool facade from cracking.