War Pony (2022) review

Two individuals who live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota struggle to survive: Bill (Jojo Bapteise Whiting) tries raising money to bail his baby mama Carly (Anjeliq Aurora) out of jail and then takes a job with nefarious Tim (Sprague Hollander) while elementary school student Matho (LaDainian Crazy Thunder) steals from his father, who then kicks him out of the house.  I respect and appreciate attention being paid to a part of American Society folks don't want to think about - namely, the horrifying mistreatment of indigenous peoples - but this not only fails to address bigger issues involved in this situation (what's with all the drugs? what happened with Matho's dad?), the scenes are shapeless and just kind of run on and the characters are hardly developed.  The whole movie is morbidly depressing and it might leave you feeling sadder than expected, but many are resilient and proud, and one should hope for the best for them.  Side note: if you'd have told me years ago Elvis Presley's granddaughter, for her directorial debut, would make a film involving Native Americans done in the style of Larry Clark, I wouldn't have believed you ... but here we are.