Sydney Freeland's Directorial Debut Drunktown's Finest Delivers Exceptional Character Work

Native American characters haven't fared too well in American cinema. Far more knowledgable people than me have penned great academic essays on this topic, chief among them being this piece by Julia Boyd. In a nutshell, though, Native American characters, like so many racial minorities, have been typically erased outright in American cinema. The only time they tend to emerge is so the can serve as supporting characters to white protagonists. Drunktown's Finest is a more than welcome departure from this norm with its trio of Native protagonists. Following this many characters allow writer/director Sydney Freeland (she's of Navajo heritage) to shatter the perception of Native Americans all adhering to singular stereotypes.



There's variety, idiosyncratic personalities and humanity flowing throughout these various plotlines that all take place in a town disparagingly known as Drunktown. Our trio of lead characters includes Nizhoni Smiles (Morningstar Angeline), an eighteen-year-old preparing to head off to College. Having lived with adopted parents for much of her life, she's now trying to track down her only living blood relatives. Next up we have Luther "Sickboy" Maryboy (Jeremiah Bitsui), a man prone to violent outbursts at the sign of conflict. These fits of rage keep getting him into trouble and are jeopardizing his chances of getting enlisted into the U.S. military. Considering he's got a kid on the way, Sickboy could really use the reliable finances the Military can provide, which means he's gotta keep his temper under control.

Finally, we have Felixia (Carmen Moore), a character whose storyline exemplifies the quietly subversive storytelling Sydney Freeland delivers with Drunktown's Finest. Felixia is a Trans woman and Trans individuals do not fare well in cinematic storytelling. Usually, these characters are relegated to supporting roles defined exclusively by anguish, with the fact that a Cis-gendered person is playing the Trans role being the gross cherry on top of this troubling stereotype-ridden sundae. For Drunktown's Finest, though, Freeland (who herself is Trans) upends all of these traditions. For one thing, Carmen Moore, a Trans performer, is inhabiting the role of Felixia and she does good work in her first foray into non-adult cinema.

Secondly, Felixia actually has the most stable home life of the three lead characters. Felixia lives with her grandparents, both of whom are totally accepting and encouraging of Felixia's gender identity. Considering how Trans characters are exclusively shown to exist in tormented homelife's in cinematic storytelling, Felixia's relationship with her grandparents is a refreshing change of pace. To boot, it's something that works in the confines of this characters' specific journey as it allows us to understand how torn she is about the necessity of moving out of Drunktown. There just aren't as many opportunities for her here, but leaving behind such encouraging parental figures makes leaving a difficult proposition.

Drunktown's Finest doesn't even linger on how trailblazing its approach to Felixia's homelife is. It's one of the many unique qualities of Felixia's plotline (which also include how the character's occupation of being a sex worker isn't treated as a bad thing) that Drunktown's Finest treats with the kind of casualness that should be the norm. This movie exemplifies how we should be treated Trans storytelling, specifically with an emphasis on unique perspectives (no two Trans individuals are exactly alike, after all) and making sure they're not defined solely by tragedy. Felixia proves to be the most unique and authentically-rendered of Drunktown's Finest's characters. However, she proves to be a microcosm of the sort of quietly thoughtful storytelling Sydney Freelan employs throughout the whole production.

Sickboy's storyline is especially interesting in how it goes through such quietly unexpected directions exploring how his default reliance on violent methods when confronted with hardship ends up creating a domino effect of chaos in his life. The storylines in Drunktown's Finest are extremely thoughtfully-realized but it must be said that the visual elements of the production are less polished. Partially that can be attributed to the type of filmmaking restrictions for any indie production made on a shoestring budget. Still, there are clumsy pieces of camerawork & editing scattered throughout Drunktown's Finest that do distract from the otherwise consistently engaging character work. While its low-budget nature leads to some underwhelming qualities, Drunktown's Finest is predominately exceptional fare. This is particularly true in regards to a trio of lead characters that work both on their own terms as dramatically compelling individuals as well as examples of how to escape harmful Native American and/or Trans stereotypes that have plagued so much of cinema.