There have been many films about childhood and being a teenage girl, but I have never seen anything like Jazzy before. A spiritual sequel set in the same universe as filmmaker Morrisa Maltz’s The Unknown Country, the film follows an older elementary school student
For those who remember the previous, Lily Gladstone played Tana, a young woman traveling south from Wyoming to Texas to honor her grandmother’s memory. At her pitstops, she would interact with real people — nonactors— who would reveal some story or inner truth about their lives. The whole film operated like a cinematic poem.
At one such stop, Tana visited her cousin who was about to get married and became enamored by her little girl, Jasmine (Jasmine Shangreaux). Jazzy, named after the titular character follows her a few years later, in late elementary school, when crushes and best friends make up your entire world.
Instead of traveling around, Maltz keeps us in Jazzy’s neighborhood where she lives with her best friend, Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means). Both indigenous, they talk about learning their native language in between gossiping about their friends at school. When Syriah mysteriously stops talking to her one day, Jazzy is devastated, trying to get them to reconnect.
The relationship between Jazzy and Syriah is easy and lived in. In 2024, a quiet, yet brilliant documentary called Hummingbirds followed two friends as they navigated immigrant life in Laredo, Texas. On paper, the concept seemed slow and boring, but the dynamic between the two leads is what kept you watching. The same can said for this film. We watch their heartbreaks and their triumphs — the way their eyes move when their moms give them news they can’t quite comprehend. We quickly become immersed in their playful banter, so much so that we are laughing along with them in the film’s final moments.
Lily Gladstone, who also produced the film, reprises her role as Tana for a featured cameo towards the end of the film’s runtime. The always charming Raymond Lee returns as her partner Isaac. Maltz is very smart in how she depicts Tana. Up until this point, adults are just heard not seen. We never see a teacher, parent, or any other authority figure’s face. This changes when everyone heads to the reservation for a funeral. When Jazzy wants to connect to the parental figures in her life, like Tana or Grandpa August (played by Richard Ray Whitman aka “Old Man Fixico” on Reservation Dogs, again reprising a role) we finally see them. Their bond, like so many aspects of Jazzy, is a small particular part of girlhood and growing up that isn’t always captured. The friend of your parents that you don’t always see but are in awe of and want to impress. The boy who has a crush on you but you don’t know how to let them down easy. The absolute insanity and pain you go through when a friend just stops interacting with you out of nowhere. All are such a distinct and essential part of being a preteen girl. It’s a visual privilege for Maltz to honor that time.
Jazzy is available in select theaters and On Demand. Watch the trailer below.
