Cine Las Americas 2022 Review: Wildhood

In a trailer somewhere in Mi’kma’ki, on Canada's Atlantic coast, young Lincoln (Phillip Lewitski) suffers at the hands of his abusive father and feels an overall lack of belonging. He and his younger half-brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony) are introduced as Travis helps Link dye his hair blonde - just like his.

After yet another night of cruelty, Link locks himself in his father’s bedroom searching for his motorbike’s confiscated key. Instead, he comes across an old letter from his Mi’kmaw mother addressed to him. Up until now, he believed her to be dead due to the deceit of his father. Fueled by the desire to find her and certain it would improve his life, he and Travis take off in search of her.

Early in their travels, the boys meet Pasmay (Joshua OdjickP), a pow wow dancer who is quickly intrigued by Lincoln. Pasmay becomes an essential character and travel companion to the boys. Together, they venture from address to address, no hope avail when they realize Lincoln’s mother doesn’t wish to be found. Now relinquished from the violence of his former home, we witness Link’s self-discovery, to which Pasmay contributes much.

In Wildhood (coming to Hulu, June 24) writer/director Bretten Hannam swimmingly blends genres in their film as they fuse various storylines that help Lincoln find his sense of belonging. Dreamscapes conjured from moments between him and his mother when he was a child glitter the darkness of Lincoln’s painful life. These flashbacks serve as a secondary backdrop to the scenic bodies of water that often point our attention to Pasmay’s vest patch that reads “Water is Sacred.” Elements like these enhance what is already such a gorgeous film.

As Wildhood unfolds, it soaks up its initial catalysts of trauma and applies the balm of tenderness, love, compassion, and the bliss of finding exactly what its protagonist was hoping for, if not more. There are such precious moments that make it as much of a love story, as it is a coming of age story, and also, a story about family. From Pasmay teaching Link how to speak in his mother’s language, or teaching him how to dance, or by simply seeing him beyond the outer crust of his anger: Hannam manages to capture a spectrum of emotions and themes over the course of a two-day road trip. Although this film acknowledges homophobia, the plot doesn’t get stuck there. Hannam shares concepts of fluidity, gender, sexuality, sacredness, and vulnerability in a truly magical way. This film is a celebration of a boy’s return to himself.

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Wildhood

Cine Las Americas International Film Festival 2022, June 8-12.