By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Tracey Deer
Starring: D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai | Joel Montgrand | Kiawentiio | Paulina Alexis | Rainbow Dickerson | Violah Beauvais
Country: canada
Year: 2021
Running time: 92
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11735544/reference
Chris says: “An account of the 1990 land crisis between the Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, BEANS is told through the perspective of its 12-year-old protagonist (whose nickname is the film’s title.) Based on filmmaker Tracey Deer’s own experiences, it’s also a coming-of-age story as Beans, a summer away from attending a predominantly white private school, navigates the crisis with her family while also befriending fellow Mohawk neighbor April, a brash girl who goads and encourages Beans to toughen herself up.
“Deer inserts extensive archival footage of the crisis, which proves more effective than her dramatization of it, which often comes off as a bit melodramatic and dampened by an over-the-top score. However, when she focuses on Beans and April and the ins and outs of becoming a teenager, particularly one learning how to deal with such harrowing stuff as being pelted with rocks by white racist protesters, the film is far more immediate. BEANS doesn’t have the depth or nuance of fellow Quebecois-film-with-an-indigenous-lead THE SAVER, but it’s worth watching for the real life event it illuminates and for good work from Kiawentiio as Beans and Rainbow Dickerson (exhibiting a Sandra Oh-like exasperated fieriness) as her very pregnant mom. 3.5 cats
“Screened at the Provincetown International Film Festival”
Michael says: “I’ve been going back and forth about BEANS, which is a Quebecois coming-of-age film set during the Oka Crisis, the turbulent Indigenous uprising that tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990. It was certainly a dark moment in Canadian history, and the archival footage director Tracey deer weaves into the narrative film is incredibly effective to tell this horrifically fraught tale. The coming-of-age story, centering on a 12-year-old girl whose Mohawk name is difficult to pronounce, so everyone calls her Beans, is slightly less successful, although makes for a nice humanistic touchstone while the racial prejudice threatens to smother everything around it. Beans is all pink and innocence, she frightened of everything, and her mother, Lily, tells her she needs to toughen up. As she timidly witnesses that hatred directed at her and her people by the white folks in the town, she falls in with a tougher crowd of high school students, and she begins to adopt that toughness that she needs both to fit in with her fellow Mohawk compatriots, but to stay up to the racial injustices around her, like her mother does. Unfortunately, as one might expect, a 12-year-old doesn’t have the same nuance or wisdom and an adult, and her toughness turns out to be just another side of bullying.
“Despite the awkward character, Kiawentiio is terrific as young Beans, channelling both the wide-eyed innocence, and the thin veneer of toughness when required. Rainbow Dickerson is the standout here though, a combination of fierce, protective mother, indignant social justice warrior, and exasperated disciplinarian. Chris hit it on the head when she called out Sandra Oh as a good comparison. I’d love to see Dickerson do so much more. Some of the other characters were a little one-dimensional, but this is a powerful story, and one worth taking notice. 4 cats
“Screened at the Provincetown International Film Festival”
Toni says: “BEANS was based on true events between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Oka, Quebec in an over 80 day stand-off. The writing perspective from an adolescent’s eyes, at age twelve, Tekehentahkhwa (nicknamed ‘Beans’), was unique in presenting this event and how she becomes caught between her desire to go to the ‘white’ prep school and connect with her roots in the face of hostility from neighboring communities. The ensemble was solid in performances, both youth and adults, making for resonant personal stories amongst the larger socio-political backdrop. 4 cats
“Screened at the Provincetown International Film Festival”