Yahoo News ‘Frybread Face and Me’ Trailer Follows Young Navajo Cousins Across One Life-Changing Summer (Exclusive)
What was supposed to be a summer of Fleetwood Mac becomes a journey that two young cousins from different worlds will never forget in director Billy Luther’s Frybread Face and Me trailer.
Executive produced by Taika Waititi and distributed by Ava DuVernay’s Array Releasing, Frybread Face and Me serves as the narrative feature debut for Luther, a filmmaker of the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo tribes. Set in 1990, this coming-of-age dramedy follows 12-year-old city kid Benny Lovell (Keir Tallman) as his summer — and plans to attend an upcoming Fleetwood Mac concert — are upended when his parents drop him onto the Navajo Nation reservation to spend the summer with his grandmother.
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“And this is how my summer began,” the voice of the older Benny narrates in the minute in a half trailer.
On the reservation, Benny’s surrounded by his Aunt Lucy (Kahara Hodges), Grandma Lorraine (Sarah Natani), Uncle Marvin (Martin Sensmeier) and cousin Fry (Charley Hogan). The meeting of Benny and Fry is full of awkward tension and comedy, with the duo’s introduction accented by Fry’s Frankensteined doll with a baby head and stuffed animal body, and nicknamed “Jeff Bridges.”
The duo spend the summer learning about each other’s worlds — what lesbians are, how to drive with “one hand on the wheel and a cigarette in the other” and the existence of annual passes to Sea World. “Where are you going,” Benny asks his cousin. “We’ve got things to do,” she replies. “Are you coming or not?”
But Fry isn’t the only family member who will have lessons for Benny during his summer on the rez. He’ll have to face his bull-riding, bully of an uncle and a grandmother he struggles to connect with as she only speaks Navajo. It’s a summer where Benny and Fry will build a special bond while learning more about their family’s past and about themselves.
“You’re beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you any different,” says Aunt Lucy in the trailer, as Benny and Fry dance around in colorful scarves and skirts.
Along with Waititi, Frybread Face and Me is executive produced by World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey, longtime RuPaul’s Drag Race producer Randy Barbato, Fit Via Vi’s Bill Way and Elliott Whitton, Charles D. King and MACRO. Chad Burris is producer on the film, which world premiered at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival and held its international premiere at this year’s TIFF.
Frybread Face and Me will debut on Netflix and in select U.S. theaters on Nov. 24, Native American Heritage Day.
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