Billy Luther’s 2023 Netflix film, Frybread Face and Me, chronicled the story of two cousins, Benny (Keir Tallman) and Fry (Charley Hogan), who were sent to their grandmother’s (Sarah H. Natani) house over on the Navajo Reservation. Benny didn’t take the news well, as he was planning to go to a Fleetwood Mac concert. He had been saving up for it for months as well. However, his parents were in no mood to listen to Benny’s rant and made it very clear that he was going to spend his summer at his grandmother’s house. Even though Benny hated it, he had no choice but to agree. With tears in his eyes, Benny took a bus to California, from where his aunt Lucy dropped him off on his grandma’s ranch.
Lucy was Benny’s mother’s youngest sister, who dropped out of school to sell custom-made pieces of jewelry.
Lucy was Benny’s mother’s youngest sister, who dropped out of school to sell custom-made pieces of jewelry.
- 11/28/2023
- by Rishabh Shandilya
- Film Fugitives
One-half of Barbenheimer has been available on digital platforms for weeks, and now the equation is complete. Releasing the other half on a long holiday weekend is a smart strategy because it restores momentum as a deluge of fall prestige titles premiere in theaters and online.
The contender to watch this week: “Oppenheimer“
At long last, Oppy has come home. Christopher Nolan‘s colossal biopic about atomic-bomb daddy J. Robert Oppenheimer is available on VOD, right in time for an Oscar contest that’s fully aflame. The blockbuster’s likely nominations include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Score (Ludwig Göransson), and Best Sound. Gather the whole family for three hours of thrilling post-turkey physics.
Other contenders:
“Joan Baez: I Am a Noise”: The pop documentaries that flood streaming services today are often undercooked PR exercises without enough critical distance from their subjects,...
The contender to watch this week: “Oppenheimer“
At long last, Oppy has come home. Christopher Nolan‘s colossal biopic about atomic-bomb daddy J. Robert Oppenheimer is available on VOD, right in time for an Oscar contest that’s fully aflame. The blockbuster’s likely nominations include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Score (Ludwig Göransson), and Best Sound. Gather the whole family for three hours of thrilling post-turkey physics.
Other contenders:
“Joan Baez: I Am a Noise”: The pop documentaries that flood streaming services today are often undercooked PR exercises without enough critical distance from their subjects,...
- 11/25/2023
- by Matthew Jacobs
- Gold Derby
Benny (Keir Tallman) is a city kid: a proud San Diego resident who loves action figures and Fleetwood Mac, and who can speak with nonchalant ease about the benefits of an annual pass to Sea World. So when his parents — including his beloved mother (Owee Rae), the very same person who encourages his Fleetwood Mac-based dancing and soap opera-esque action figure playing! — decide to send Benny to his grandmother’s house on an out-of-state Navajo reservation for the summer, he’s rightly put out. And when he finally arrives at the local bus depot, the plucky 11-year-old turns right back around and tries to zoom promptly back to San Diego.
But, as becomes a constant theme throughout Billy Luther’s winning first narrative feature “Frybread Face and Me,” Benny’s family is there to catch him, whether he likes it or not. Set in 1990, and smacking of period details that never feel over the top,...
But, as becomes a constant theme throughout Billy Luther’s winning first narrative feature “Frybread Face and Me,” Benny’s family is there to catch him, whether he likes it or not. Set in 1990, and smacking of period details that never feel over the top,...
- 11/23/2023
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
What was supposed to be a summer of Fleetwood Mac becomes a journey that two young cousins from different worlds will never forget in director Billy Luther’s Frybread Face and Me trailer.
Executive produced by Taika Waititi and distributed by Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing, Frybread Face and Me serves as the narrative feature debut for Luther, a filmmaker of the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo tribes. Set in 1990, this coming-of-age dramedy follows 12-year-old city kid Benny Lovell (Keir Tallman) as his summer — and plans to attend an upcoming Fleetwood Mac concert — are upended when his parents drop him onto the Navajo Nation reservation to spend the summer with his grandmother.
“And this is how my summer began,” the voice of the older Benny narrates in the minute in a half trailer.
On the reservation, Benny’s surrounded by his Aunt Lucy (Kahara Hodges), Grandma Lorraine (Sarah Natani), Uncle...
Executive produced by Taika Waititi and distributed by Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing, Frybread Face and Me serves as the narrative feature debut for Luther, a filmmaker of the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo tribes. Set in 1990, this coming-of-age dramedy follows 12-year-old city kid Benny Lovell (Keir Tallman) as his summer — and plans to attend an upcoming Fleetwood Mac concert — are upended when his parents drop him onto the Navajo Nation reservation to spend the summer with his grandmother.
“And this is how my summer began,” the voice of the older Benny narrates in the minute in a half trailer.
On the reservation, Benny’s surrounded by his Aunt Lucy (Kahara Hodges), Grandma Lorraine (Sarah Natani), Uncle...
- 11/15/2023
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Excited for his parents’ promise to take him to Fleetwood Mac in San Diego, Benny (Keir Tallman) can’t help feeling betrayed when his father announces he’ll be spending the summer at his grandmother’s (Sarah H. Natani) home on the Navajo reservation in Arizona instead. It’s been years since his mother (Morningstar Angeline) last took him to visit, and he wishes it could have been longer. Benny is an ’80s city kid. He listens to rock music, uses his action figures to reenact soap opera drama, and dances in his mother’s cowboy hat. Herding sheep and building fences doesn’t interest him––especially since he doesn’t know Navajo and Grandma refuses to learn English.
We’ve all experienced a summer where plans change sans notice or explanation. At that age we just had to scowl and accept our fate––there were no money or means to escape it.
We’ve all experienced a summer where plans change sans notice or explanation. At that age we just had to scowl and accept our fate––there were no money or means to escape it.
- 9/15/2023
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
After years of working in Hollywood, Taika Waititi has lived through the classic biopic scene where a protagonist wakes up and immediately questions all of their life choices.
“What the fuck am I doing? Why am I doing this? For what reason? There’s no purpose and I’m getting nothing out of this,” Waititi said in an interview with IndieWire at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. “And then we realize, ‘Oh, but the reason we do this is to help people in our community.’ To keep pulling each other up and supporting each other, that is the purpose. That’s the reason to be doing any of this.”
Though he has made headlines for being at the festival to premiere his long-awaited sports comedy “Next Goal Wins,” Waititi is also promoting the independent film “Frybread Face and Me” from writer-director Billy Luther, which he executive produced. The coming-of-age story...
“What the fuck am I doing? Why am I doing this? For what reason? There’s no purpose and I’m getting nothing out of this,” Waititi said in an interview with IndieWire at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. “And then we realize, ‘Oh, but the reason we do this is to help people in our community.’ To keep pulling each other up and supporting each other, that is the purpose. That’s the reason to be doing any of this.”
Though he has made headlines for being at the festival to premiere his long-awaited sports comedy “Next Goal Wins,” Waititi is also promoting the independent film “Frybread Face and Me” from writer-director Billy Luther, which he executive produced. The coming-of-age story...
- 9/14/2023
- by Marcus Jones
- Indiewire
In Billy Luther’s feature film debut, “Frybread Face and Me,” Benny (Keir Tallman) is taken out of his comfort zone after he’s sent to spend the summer at his grandmother’s ranch on the reservation. It’s a feeling most adults can relate to — that first time when they were kids and sent away for the summer, whether it was to camp or to spend time with a family member. The film premieres in Toronto on Sept. 11.
Producer Chad Burris was drawn to Luther’s story because it was discussing something he hadn’t seen before, aside from the script being insightful and emotional, Burris says the characters were fun, punchy and humorous. “What I thought was interesting was how the story of Benny was juxtaposed with Native life, and I thought it was so fresh. It had a casual approach to what it was saying,” says Burris.
Producer Chad Burris was drawn to Luther’s story because it was discussing something he hadn’t seen before, aside from the script being insightful and emotional, Burris says the characters were fun, punchy and humorous. “What I thought was interesting was how the story of Benny was juxtaposed with Native life, and I thought it was so fresh. It had a casual approach to what it was saying,” says Burris.
- 9/9/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
In “Frybread Face and Me,” Benny Lovell might be a few years away from the edge of 17, but the 12-year-old Indian kid has a passion for Fleetwood Mac. It’s his fondness for the band, its witchy vocalist Stevie Nicks as well as for dolls that has his parents sending him from San Diego to his maternal grandmother on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona. But before he gets on the bus headed east, adult Benny in voice-over offers a caveat: “If you think no one does dysfunction like Fleetwood Mac, then you haven’t met my family.” It’s 1990 and a summer that initially smacks of exile and punishment becomes one of discovery — self-discovery to be sure, but also cultural and familial.
Keir Tallman stars as Benny, the “Me” of writer-director Billy Luther’s warm debut narrative feature. Luther, of the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo Laguna nations, has made feature documentaries.
Keir Tallman stars as Benny, the “Me” of writer-director Billy Luther’s warm debut narrative feature. Luther, of the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo Laguna nations, has made feature documentaries.
- 3/24/2023
- by Lisa Kennedy
- Variety Film + TV
Frybread Face and Me unfolds over one of those strange seasons of youth, in which not much technically happens but everything feels changed afterward, in some small but significant way. Plot-wise, it’s slim: Benny (Keir Tallman) is an 11-year-old from San Diego who’s sent to stay with his grandmother (Sarah H. Natani) on the Navajo reservation for the summer, where he meets and befriends his cousin Dawn, a.k.a. Frybread Face (Charley Hodges). The pair while away the months doing what kids do — playing with dolls, watching Starman on repeat and snooping through their uncle’s stuff in between chores on the family’s sheep ranch — until all of a sudden, it’s time for Benny to return home.
But what Frybread Face and Me lacks in drama, it makes up for in a boundless affection for its characters and an appreciation for the everyday details of their lives.
But what Frybread Face and Me lacks in drama, it makes up for in a boundless affection for its characters and an appreciation for the everyday details of their lives.
- 3/12/2023
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Filmmaker Billy Luther makes his narrative feature debut at SXSW on Saturday with “Frybead Face and Me,” executive produced by Taika Waititi. Inspired by his childhood, the film follows a young boy, Benny (Keir Tallman), who has to spend the summer with his grandma on the reservation.
Luther, whose past work includes the documentary “Miss Navajo” and AMC’s “Dark Winds,” feels Benny’s story of learning about rez life and bonding with his cousin Frybread (Charley Hogan) has universal appeal in that it’s ultimately about being somewhere new and feeling alone.
“You don’t have to be Native to connect to the story because everyone remembers being dropped off somewhere, and the story brings that familiarity,” Luther says.
Still, it was incredibly important to Luther to cast Navajo actors, a process that was complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. But, he eventually found his stars in Tallman and Hogan,...
Luther, whose past work includes the documentary “Miss Navajo” and AMC’s “Dark Winds,” feels Benny’s story of learning about rez life and bonding with his cousin Frybread (Charley Hogan) has universal appeal in that it’s ultimately about being somewhere new and feeling alone.
“You don’t have to be Native to connect to the story because everyone remembers being dropped off somewhere, and the story brings that familiarity,” Luther says.
Still, it was incredibly important to Luther to cast Navajo actors, a process that was complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic. But, he eventually found his stars in Tallman and Hogan,...
- 3/12/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: “I’ve told stories about my community and stuff, but this is, this is my story,” declares Frybread Face and Me director Billy Luther of his Taika Waititi executive produced feature debut.
Premiering tonight at SXSW, the long gestating drama from the Miss Navajo helmer is a 1990-set coming-of-age tale of San Diego reared Benny and the summer he is sent to live with his grandmother and other family on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. The summer becomes all the more significant for the doll-playing and Fleetwood Mac obsessed Benny as the city kid gradually befriends his cousin Dawn a.k.a. Frybread, and learns of not only his own family history through her, but that of his Indigenous culture too.
Spawned out the Sundance Institute labs and financed in part by Charles D King’s Macro, along with River Road and Rei Co-op Studios, have teamed with Chad Burris’ Indion Entertainment,...
Premiering tonight at SXSW, the long gestating drama from the Miss Navajo helmer is a 1990-set coming-of-age tale of San Diego reared Benny and the summer he is sent to live with his grandmother and other family on a Navajo reservation in Arizona. The summer becomes all the more significant for the doll-playing and Fleetwood Mac obsessed Benny as the city kid gradually befriends his cousin Dawn a.k.a. Frybread, and learns of not only his own family history through her, but that of his Indigenous culture too.
Spawned out the Sundance Institute labs and financed in part by Charles D King’s Macro, along with River Road and Rei Co-op Studios, have teamed with Chad Burris’ Indion Entertainment,...
- 3/12/2023
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
Native filmmaker Billy Luther heads to SXSW this weekend to premiere his narrative feature debut, “Frybread Face and Me” on March 11.
Set in the ‘90s, the coming-of-age story follows Benny (Keir Tallman), a young Native American boy who plays with dolls, sports a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and watches soap operas.
Forced to spend his summer on the reservation with his grandmother, Benny finds himself impressed by his cousin “Frybread” (Charley Hogan) who opens his eyes to life on the rez.
Featuring an entirely Native cast and predominantly Native crew, Luther says it was important to cast Navajo kids at the core of his film. He says, “With the help of Midthunder Casting, which also worked on FX ‘Reservation Dogs,’ we were able to find these incredible kids. The amount of Indigenous talent – Martin Sensmeier, MorningStar Angeline, and Jeremiah Bitsui came on. And we also brought on some amazing new faces...
Set in the ‘90s, the coming-of-age story follows Benny (Keir Tallman), a young Native American boy who plays with dolls, sports a Fleetwood Mac t-shirt and watches soap operas.
Forced to spend his summer on the reservation with his grandmother, Benny finds himself impressed by his cousin “Frybread” (Charley Hogan) who opens his eyes to life on the rez.
Featuring an entirely Native cast and predominantly Native crew, Luther says it was important to cast Navajo kids at the core of his film. He says, “With the help of Midthunder Casting, which also worked on FX ‘Reservation Dogs,’ we were able to find these incredible kids. The amount of Indigenous talent – Martin Sensmeier, MorningStar Angeline, and Jeremiah Bitsui came on. And we also brought on some amazing new faces...
- 3/9/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Fresh off completing shooting in New Mexico, the Taika Waititi executive produced feature Frybread Face and Me now has some heavy hitters on board to see the Billy Luther-directed film over the finish line.
Charles D King’s Macro, along with River Road and Rei Co-op Studios, have teamed with Chad Burris’ Indion Entertainment to finance the Indigenous coming-of-age tale.
“We cannot measure our gratitude for the support and encouragement the film has received from our partners,” Burris told Deadline. “Equally immeasurable is the value these dynamic partners bring collectively through their commitment to uplifting underrepresented voices and perspectives. Their shared enthusiasm is apparent in the projects they choose to champion and the reason they are great partners for this film.”
Waititi and Luther, who also penned the film, will serve as EPs along with Macro’s King, Poppy Hanks and Greta Talia Fuentes as well as Rei...
Charles D King’s Macro, along with River Road and Rei Co-op Studios, have teamed with Chad Burris’ Indion Entertainment to finance the Indigenous coming-of-age tale.
“We cannot measure our gratitude for the support and encouragement the film has received from our partners,” Burris told Deadline. “Equally immeasurable is the value these dynamic partners bring collectively through their commitment to uplifting underrepresented voices and perspectives. Their shared enthusiasm is apparent in the projects they choose to champion and the reason they are great partners for this film.”
Waititi and Luther, who also penned the film, will serve as EPs along with Macro’s King, Poppy Hanks and Greta Talia Fuentes as well as Rei...
- 9/21/2021
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
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