Title: Beans
Director: Tracy Deer
Starring: Kiawentiio, Violah Beauvais, Rainbow Dickerson
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
What It Is: A young girl, Beans (Kiawentiio) has to learn to grow up amidst a deeply impactful moment in indigenous history, a 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Quebec – now known as The Oka Crisis.
What We Think: This story is a gripping one. Beans works tremendously well as a coming-of-age story set during a major historical event for the indigenous people. Having not been as informed about their history, this serves as a great insight as to how difficult those times were for both sides. While intertwining real-life footage from the actual event itself, the film escalates to chaotic and unbelievably terrifying heights – the presentation here is done very well.
What goes along with this presentation is the best performance I’ve seen from a child actor in a long time. Kiawentiio knocks it out of the park with her portrayal of a victim of misdirected hatred and confused ideologies, and how that confusion/hatred shapes her over the course of the film. One of my favorite shots in the entire picture is the parallel of her riding into town, smiling, yet after her first encounter with the vile nature of others, she is incredibly devastated on the ride back – a chilling parallel. Her arc is something I deeply enjoyed, albeit it does end in a somewhat lukewarm way (considering the story’s thrilling consequences) and it made me feel a bit sidetracked – which, speaking of sidetracked, some of the ‘coming of age’ elements here did feel like they derived from the bigger picture of racial/political injustice and its effect on youth. There didn’t have to be your typical ‘go out and be a ruffian’ sort of sequence; it didn’t fit the story all too much.
I will say that the cinematography is lush and real, with some truly haunting images peppered throughout the major set pieces and scenes in the film. The dreadful, sinking feeling of danger came to haunt me a few times during these sequences, and the performances from everyone found a way to pull on the ol’ heartstrings harder than I expected – emotions do run high here.
Our Grade: B; With a terrific lead performance from young talent and the eerie, realistic presentation of a truly moving event, Beans is a great coming of age story – with an important message at its core.