Sometimes I can’t help wondering what it’s like to live in a world where you truly believe women and minorities are getting all the breaks. I can’t imagine it and yet we all know that particular point of view describes millions of Trump voters – people who have somehow convinced themselves that any semblance of equality represents oppression. As has been said many times by better people than I – sure, if you’ve gotten the breaks forever, equality feels like oppression.
But it isn’t, and we don’t even have equality as is. What we have is a system that tries about 50% of the time and corrects itself when people get really loud … or it used to, at least. The problem we have encountered in the Trump era is that the loudest voices and biggest government influencers are already getting the breaks; they know that if you can control what people hear, the masses never need pay attention to genuine discrimination. And for them, I offer Nika & Madison, the Native-American Thelma & Louise, sorta.
Nike (Ellyn Jade) is a middling Toronto college student. She has done her best to abandon her tribal roots, and yet she has decided to return to the reservation for a week and maybe, just maybe, rekindle a relationship with her estranged cousin, Madison (Star Slade). This all rests on things like Nika NOT going to a bar, getting drunk, and getting’ in a bitchin’ fight with a rival. Geez, woman, what are you going to college for, anyway?
Even then, the week of relaxation and home cooking is still on track when Nika gets picked up by the local fuzz. A set of fairly unique circumstances later, Madison comes to the rescue when the arresting officer stops along the way to the reservation to sexually assault Nika. He takes a hockey stick to the head for his offense. Uh oh, Madison is in serious trouble … or at least has earned a 5-minute major penalty. Nika is wrapped up in this as well, of course. And who
exactly is going to take the word of two reservation girls over that of a white police officer?
What would you do here? Seriously. There is certainly a “justifiable” component to this crime, and yet, how likely do you suppose are the follow-up officers going to take the word of the girls over their hospitalized colleague? The girls are on the run for good reason.
I’ve called Nika & Madison a Native-American Thelma & Louise, but, truthfully, it’s much more of a country mouse v. city mouse tale, where both mice are sought by the law. Nika has forgotten her roots. Madison is there to remind here, but maybe Nika has learned a thing or two in Toronto that she can share as well. The story is uneven, but I liked the leads and the message well enough to justify a recommendation. And if the two on the run are white men? There isn’t a film, because they wouldn’t need to be on the run with justifiable defense.
Nika was a First Nation member
Who left some time last September
Upon returning to the tribe
She got a bad vibe
From a cop she’d rather not remember
Not Rated, 87 Minutes
Director: Eva Thomas
Writer: Michael McGowan, Eva Thomas
Genre: “Hold up. You Canadians mistreated Native-Americans as well? What a coincidence!”
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: First nationers, feminists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Law enforcement
