Rhymes for Young Ghouls

Release Date: September 9th, 2013
Running Time: 88 minutes
Written & Directed by: Jeff Barnaby
Starring: Kawennahere Devery Jacobs, Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes, Mark Antony Krupa, Cody Bird, Katherine Sorbey, Roseanne Supernault, Shako Mattawa Jacobs

Rhymes for Young Ghouls has one of the most evocative movie titles in recent years—especially for someone like me who's long had a serious interest in rhymes, fantasy creatures, and generally dark stories. So when I heard of the film, I was immediately intrigued. Then I read that it was about Canadian Indigenous people (particularly kids), the residential school system, and was written and directed by a Mi'kmaq man named Jeff Barnaby. There are not too many films that I know of that are written and directed by, and almost exclusively star, Canadian Indigenous people. So for that reason, and the title of the film, I was thoroughly curious to see Rhymes for Young Ghouls. And in many ways it delivers.

The protagonist is 16-year-old Aila, played by stunning newcomer Kawennahere Devery Jacobs, a Mi'kmaq girl who lives on the fictional Red Crow Reservation in Quebec, in 1976. She narrates the film in voiceover, dubbing the reservation "The Kingdom of the Crow", and tells us that there are rules for survival there. "Rule #1: Never befriend an Indian Agent—it'll get your ass kicked, or killed, by other Indians. Rule #2: Stay out of debt to Indian Agents—they don't speak Indian, they only speak money, and not paying will only get you beat up. Rule #3: Take care of your family. Rule #4: Don't act like a badass if you can't fight—ain't nobody above an ass-kicking. Rule #5: Don't show weakness, or let your emotional barrier down."

Yes, a lot of rules involving avoidance of getting beat up or killed. Such is the harsh reality of life in the Kingdom of the Crow. And it seems your age won't save you from catching a beating either, as Aila and her teen friends are constantly terrorized by the rez cops—especially by a ruthless truant agent called Popper (Mark Antony Krupa). He extorts money from school-aged kids on the rez in exchange for not sending them to the residential school, a horrible, oppressive institution that forces abusive assimilation practices onto the kids who attend. Popper is thoroughly corrupt and evil, as he and his squad of goons inflict violence on Aila, her friends, and any other local who resists them in any way, adult or child alike. 

Aila's father Joe has been in prison for the past seven years for criminal neglect, manslaughter, or some similar charge, after a night when her drunk and high mother accidentally drove over Aila's little brother, killing him instantly. Joe was passed out drunk in the back seat, and Aila was in the front passenger seat. Aila awoke the next morning to find her mother had hung herself, and cops hauling her father away. This is the opening scene of the film, and effectively sets a grim, brutal tone. Ever since, Aila has lived with her Uncle Burner (Brandon Oakes), and has become an entrepreneurial force on the rez, selling weed to the residents. She uses the earnings to pay off Popper so she can avoid going to the residential school, St. D's. Her supplier is a local old woman named Ceres that Aila calls "Grandma", who grows weed in a greenhouse. Aila's also a skilled artist, like her mother, carrying around a sketchbook full of drawings of animals, warrior women, and demonic, zombie-like creatures.  

Delivered in an appropriately somber tone, Aila tells her story as a manual for survival in a dystopian world, educating the audience about life on the rez. Her tale is punctuated with darkly poetic fables about spirits and the dead, mixed in with First Nations mythology. Aila is haunted by visions of her past, of herself as a little girl, and of her mother's ghost. Her concept of time is fluid, as memories, dreams, and present reality continually intermingle. She says her father has been gone for "one thousand years". But one day he returns, disgruntled and psychologically damaged. Popper and his goons immediately bully him and beat him up, and proceed to beat up Burner and Aila when they protest and retaliate. It's a compelling detail that the protagonists fight back and refuse to surrender despite being constantly antagonized by the corrupt authorities. Popper launches an assault on Aila and her crew, but they still don't roll over. A back-and-forth battle between the Red Crow residents and the authorities then ensues, culminating with a rescue and revenge plan hatched by the teens who don ghoulish Halloween masks.

This is Jeff Barnaby's first feature film, and many of the teenaged actors' first as well—and sometimes it shows. The dialogue occasionally comes off stilted and sounds a bit too scripted at times. And there are some confusing elements as to the way the rez operates, and who some characters are in relation to each other. Also, Popper and his cops are very much your cookie-cutter, B-movie kind of brutal villains. While I have no doubt that there were/are many cops who’ve committed evil acts equivalent to, and worse than, those depicted in the film, their portrayal here is nonetheless largely one-dimensional. But it's a film about Indigenous people, not the White Man oppressors. And the imaginative spirit of the film relates heavy material in a dark style so enchanting that I'll gladly overlook some of the less-than-perfect aspects. Plus, the movie does wonders with a relatively low budget, in film industry terms, of $1½ million. 

Rhymes for Young Ghouls is unflinching in its portrayal of oppressive life on the reservation, the tragic injustices of colonialism and the residential school system, and the violence, addiction, and suffering that results. Stylish visual details contribute to a magic realist, mythical, fable-like feel, such as Aila wearing a gas mask around the rez—the same mask that her mother wore when she spray-painted, to protect herself from the fumes. The look this gas mask provides, like the Halloween and carnival masks that Aila’s friends wear later in the story—and an animal skull that adorns the handlebars of Aila's drug delivery bicycle—are precious stylistic elements. These details, juxtaposed with Aila's haunting visions, memories, dreams, and Indigenous mythology (particularly the story of "the wolf and the mushrooms" told mid-film in an animation sequence), contribute to a rich, almost sci-fi/fantasy kind of atmosphere. The rez, with its harsh, oppressive overseers, indeed resembles a postindustrial wasteland. Although set in a present-day 1976, it feels like it might well have been set in a post-apocalyptic future.

I'm a sucker for movies like this; kid protagonists fighting against oppression in a dystopian world. Rhymes for Young Ghouls reminds me a bit of another recent film, Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). While very different in many respects, that movie also features a strong-willed young girl with a big imagination, in an impoverished community. After viewing Rhymes for Young Ghouls I still love the title, although there aren't, unfortunately, any rhymes in it. Might've been more accurate to call it something like Rules for Young Ghouls, which actually rhymes. Overall, though, it's an original, creative, engaging work that satisfies on many levels.
Rating (out of 5): ★★★½
• Nik Dobrinsky / Boy Drinks Ink
March 19th, 2016