‘Dandelion’ is a musical tour de force

Director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore effort, which recalls Once, features a dynamite performance from KiKi Layne. Plus- ‘This Closeness’ and ‘Fancy Dance’

With her new film Dandelion, director Nicole Riegel has created a true triumph—a character study about a singer-songwriter who isn’t the usual story of skyrocketing career success but rather a story of romance, heartbreak, and struggle. 

A film that premiered at South by Southwest — and yes, it feels a great deal like an SXSW movie — Dandelion recalls 2006’s Once, right down to the romance, the struggle, and the first-rate original music. Hopefully, it finds something close to the audience that that film did. A super-successful Broadway adaptation, years down the line, would also be welcome. 

Dandelion stars KiKi Layne, so wonderful six years in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, as a singer-songwriter who goes by that name. Living in Cincinnati with her sick mother (Melanie Nicholls-King), she writes her songs, playing them — and the odd Gin Blossoms cover — three nights a week at a hotel bar where they can’t be heard over the din of the conversation. 

After a fight with her mom, who suggests it might be time, in her late 30s, to pursue something besides music, Dandelion takes off for South Dakota to play a gig at a Sturgis-style motorcycle rally. There, she meets up with a group of nomadic musicians, among them the charming Casey (Thomas Doherty). 

The scenes among the musicians reminded me a great deal of Jonathan Demme’s film Rachel Getting Married, in the way it creates a milieu where a group of musicians hang around, jamming at all hours of the day. At the same time, the movie's plot turns a different corner. 

And indeed, the music is fantastic throughout, with original songs written by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the band The National. I also loved the cinematography, which makes Cincinnati look probably the best any movie has, while equally at home in the mountains of South Dakota. 

Dandelion is coming to theaters this Friday via IFC, and I really hope this gem of a film finds an audience. 

This Closeness 

I first heard about This Closeness when it had a local screening here in Philly sometime last year. It’s the sophomore film from local director Kit Zauhar, which was shot locally, although the narrative never leaves a single apartment until the final scene.

It can demand a lot of audiences to ask them to spend 90 minutes in an enclosed space with only a small handful of people, but This Closeness meets that challenge and passes the test, thanks to compelling themes and strong performances from the main four actors. 

It’s a unique indie movie that hints at Zauhar as a rising voice. It’s like mumblecore, minus the mumbling.

The film's setup is that a New York-based couple named Ben and Tessa (Zane Pais and Zauhar) is visiting Ben’s hometown of Philadelphia, where they’re attending his high school reunion. He’s a journalist, while she’s a semi-prominent ASMR YouTuber. 

Since Ben’s family sold his childhood home, they rented a room on Airbnb, which they had to share with a strange man named Adam (Ian Edlund). 

The film’s first third is a series of awkward conversations, but as it goes in, we sense a tension between Ben and Tessa and also that Adam may not be the one-dimensional incel type that he first came across as. The film also takes the ASMR stuff seriously rather than condescending about it. 

Tessa, meanwhile, becomes jealous of an old classmate of Ben’s, Lizzie, who’s played by Jessie Pinnick. Pinnick starred in 2017’s Princess Cyd, one of those tiny, obscure indie movies that I think about all the time. 

This Closeness is now streaming on Mubi and is also playing in some theaters. 

Fancy Dance 

After Tony Goldwyn’s Ezra, Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance is the second movie in the last couple of months in which the protagonist kidnaps a relative and has an Amber Alert called in on them.

 In this case, however, the character and the circumstances this time are a bit more sympathetic- Jax (Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone) has been caring for the teen daughter (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) of her missing sister, and authorities want her taken into the care of her white grandparents (Shea Whigam and Audrey Wasilewski.) 

It’s a heartbreaking tale, lifted by Gladstone’s fine performance. It’s now streaming on Apple TV+.