Songs My Brothers Taught Me

A striking debut from a blistering talent. What it lacks in narrative oomph it makes up for in beautiful imagery, natural performances and a worldview all its own.

Beguiling.

The mystery and magic grow the longer you let it rest. Understated, but still impressive.

A deeply intelligent and sympathetic rendering of real-life situations, using nonprofessionals playing approximations of themselves.

A moseying tour of life on the Lakota reservation, circa right now: the empty beauty of the badlands, the ancient struggle with alcohol, and the persistent push of youth to make good and make sense of a bad old world that somehow keeps hope alive.

The slow-paced film includes all the expected social themes - drinking, poverty, broken families. Where Zhao excels is in the range of emotions she gets from a mostly nonprofessional cast.

By casting and working with nonpros, from a treatment with scenes she wrote each morning, [Chloé] Zhao taps into stories — perhaps much like theirs — with authenticity and empathy.

An impressionistic look at the American West and the complex relationship the Lakota Sioux have with their traditions and the world in which they now find themselves.

Songs My Brothers Taught Me is visually composed primarily of many of the so called Zhao flourishes or stylings, with particularly harrowing moments defining character experience but not the narrative thrust.

It's respectful to the lives of the characters it portrays, but doesn't try to make them better than they are. Watching it, you get to feel their reality, and that's enough for one film to offer.