MOVIE OF THE WEEK February 7, 2025: JAZZY
As it follows Jasmine “Jazzy” Bearkiller Shangreaux (playing herself), a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in rural Spearfish, South Dakota, the film — a follow-up to Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country — puts a fresh spin on familiar topics like friendship ups and downs, first crushes, and family dynamics.
Filmed over a span of six years as its main characters navigate the transition from childhood to adolescence, Jazzy is made up of beautifully everyday moments in the lives of Jazzy and Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means), Jazzy’s best friend in both the movie and in real life. The girls ride to school together on the bus, giggle about class gossip, play with favorite stuffed animals, talk about how they wish they could stay kids forever, and generally stay glued to each other’s side. Until Syriah’s family ends up moving away.
Jazzy is initially bereft without her constant companion, but Syriah’s absence also allows Jazzy to grow and become more independent, experiencing life on her own and dealing with the challenges it brings. By the time a large family gathering brings Jazzy and Syriah back together, both have changed — but both still value the bond between them. (These scenes also feature a brief but memorable appearance by Oscar winner Lily Gladstone as Jazzy’s Aunt Tala, who was the main character in Maltz’ The Unknown Country.)
Maltz lets her scenes and shots linger, capturing her young stars’ emotions and conversations so authentically and intimately that you sometimes forget you’re not watching a documentary. And the South Dakota setting is lovely, with a breathtaking sunset/twilight scene late in the film serving as proof that the patience it must have taken for Maltz and her cast to stick with this memorable, thought-provoking project over multiple years was worth everyone’s time and effort. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Pam Grady: Jazzy (Jasmine Shangreaux) and Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means) are lifelong best friends in that space between childhood and adulthood sharing secrets, stuffed animals, and all of the most important parts of their lives. But a fight between their mothers forces one break on the friendship and then Syriah moves away altogether, forcing Jazzy to learn to live without her bestie. Fictional but inspired by the girls’ real friendship, Morrisa Maltz’s follow up to her 2022 feature The Unknown Country unfolds like a lazy Saturday where nothing much seems to happen yet takes on gravity through the accumulation of seemingly minor moments. Shangreaux, Means, and the other young people playing their classmates and friends are charming in their emotional honesty, while Lily Gladstone in a reprise from her role in The Unknown Country adds an appealing cameo in this perceptive drama on the joys and trials of adolescence.
Nell Minow: Jazzy is an unusual but enticing combination of an intimate, documentary with with a poetic lyricism from the visuals and music. It is very moving to see the trust director Morrisa Maltz was able to develop with the young performers, who are utterly natural. I especially like the way the Native American culture provides a context of specificity that stays in the background, keeping the real focus on the universal themes of friendship and growing up.
Leslie Combemale Morrisa Maltz creates an experiential, cinema verité-styled narrative in Jazzy, which centers on Maltz’s real-life goddaughter Jazzy Bearkiller. While it’s a fictional story, it was crafted without a script, giving all attention and value to Jazzy’s daily life, with its larger and smaller shifts, over a six year period. The truthfulness of storytelling makes for a timeless tale, and one that will touch on everyone’s own individual childhoods. This is a beautiful, poetic film that gave ownership and creative freedom to kids to great effect.
Jennifer Merin Morissa Maltz’s Jazzy is an extraordinarily exquisite and unique visual poem about friendship, loyalty, cultural legacy and personal realization. Jazzy is a genre-defying observational narrative that follows real life best friend tweens Jazzy (Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux) and Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means) for several years as they evolve from childhood to young adulthood, negotiating all the wonder and challenges of growing up. The script, written by Andrew Hajek, Lainey Bearkiller Shangreauxre and Morissa Maltz, has very little spoken exposition or ‘storytelling’ per se, and the audience is never ‘told’ what to think. Instead, the film’s narrative flow and consistently intimate (and exquisite) camerawork immerse viewers in the girls’ rural working class environment, allowing all to experience the physical and cultural landscape from the girls’ own perspectives. It’s a meditative immersion. In addition to the superbly nuanced and impressively honest performances by Jazzy and Syriah, the ensemble of kids playing their pals and schoolmates is brilliantly engaging. Not to mention that Lily Gladstone, who appears in a small role as Jazzy’s Aunt Tala, brings an extra measure of authenticity to the film’s already convincing community. Jazzy is a lovely, loving and very special film.
Sandie Angulo Chen: Jazzy is a coming-of-age film centering a young Oglala Lakota girl as she navigates loss, puberty, and friendship drama in South Dakota. Written and directed by Morrisa Maltz and produced by Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone (who also appears briefly), the movie is beautifully shot, authentically capturing a snapshot of early adolescence. At times, it seems more like a documentary than a scripted movie. Jazzy Shangreaux (Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, reportedly the filmmaker’s goddaughter) is a compelling protagonist, and her story is tender, funny (courtesy of the immature boys in her class), and true.
Loren King I’ve never seen a cinematic portrait of early adolescent girlhood quite like Jazzy, director Morrisa Maltz’s follow up to the similarly loosely structured, atmospheric, and poetic The Unknown Country. The film is structured from the lives, stories and experiences of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux and best friend Syriah Fool Head Means, young Oglala Lakota girls growing up in Spearfish, South Dakota. We follow them from ages 6 to 12 as the film captures ordinary scenes of school bus rides, seemingly simple conversations, playing with stuffed animals, and capturing the freedom of being young and free and in harmony with their natural surroundings. There is little drama except for Jazzy’s hurt when Syriah moves away physically and then distances herself emotionally. Yet this loose narrative isn’t a flaw; it’s the equivalent of a lyrical stream of conciseness. It’s great to see Lily Gladstone, Maltz’s star from The Unknown Country, show up in a small but pivotal role as Syriah’s aunt and the girl’s her link to Oglala Lakota culture and history. Jazzy is deservedly nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards: best editing and the John Cassavetes Award (for best feature made for under $1,000,000). This is exactly the kind of raw, delicate and honest film that honors Cassavetes’s legacy.
Liz Whittemore Much like Morrisa Maltz’s previous film, The Unknown Country, Jazzy is a thought-provoking narrative akin to a documentary. The movie is a digital scrapbook of childhood exploring the ever-evolving nuance of female friendship. Leads Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux and Syriah Foohead Means share an organic chemistry that is a thing of the cinema gods. There is an intimacy to the largely handheld camerawork that has become Maltz’s calling card. Jazzy is a universally relatable and entirely tangible film for girls of every age.
Cate Marquis Jazzy is a thoughtful, child-centered drama about a little girl named Jasmine, nicknamed Jazzy, that follows her as she grows up starting from age six. Jazzy (Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux) is a happy little girl who lives in a trailer park, plays with her friends, goes to school, celebrates her birthday with a pool party at a motel, and seems to have stable life, in this child’s point-of-view drama. In scenes filled with lovely cinematography and lifted by a fine score. the drama follows Jazzy and her friends, particularly Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means), in their rural, working class environment as they grow up. Adults are mostly in the background, and little is said directly, as we are immersed in this child-centric world where friendships are so important. While Jazzy has a sunny, playful personality, she also has a too-wise awareness of the hard life the adults around her are living, and how childhood shields her from the adult worries are in her future. Featuring a wonderful appearance by Lily Gladstone as Jazzy’s aunt, JAZZY is a well-crafted, immersive drama about identity, growing up, childhood friendship and family.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Jazzy
Directors: Morrisa Maltz
Release Date: February 7, 2025 (limited theatrical and Internet)
Running Time: 86 minutes
Language: English
Screenwriters: Andrew Hajek, Morrisa Maltz, Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, Vanara Taing
Lead Performers: Lily Gladstone, Jasmine Shangreaux, Syriah Fool Head Means
Distribution Company: Vertical Entertainment
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Pam Grady, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
Other Movies Opening This Week
Edited by Jennifer Merin
