Arctic Son

Going Home
A native youth is getting into trouble in Seattle and his mother sends him to live with his father, who lives on the Old Crow Reservation in a cabin. The only entertainment is, the father plays the harmonica and sings. He also catches huge fish, hunts game, goes snowmobiling to get around, and basically lives off the land in a rustic Northwestern climate. One sees the son go through a gradual transformation. There is not much in terms of words being exchanged between them. The father is pretty stoic, but you can sense the love and warmth he feels toward his son as he teaches him the ways of his life. Wordless is the cultural nuances that the father is conveying to his son through his actions. The son, initially with hollow look in his eyes, builds energy, he follows along with his father, he learns the ways, he gets some direction, maybe he understands his father and himself better. The film shows the son returning to visit his mother and getting back into the city life ways,...

TEDIUM (notice the upper-case letters)!
A biracial Inuit is getting into drugs and alcohol in his mother's town, so he is sent to his Inuit father's small town in the Yukon. This documentary is meant to show the iconic tales of overcoming addiction and father-son bonding. Unfortunately, it is so boring and dull. Watching this tested my patience in so many painful ways.
I'm an African American and in my father's generation young folk who were getting into the city's bad habits were often sent to their grandparents' homes down south. I have a friend whose sister was sent to India for the same reason. Thus, I understand how moving to a "slower" environment is a tool that families of many cultures employ. Still, this work was painfully dull.
Both the father and the son speak in mumbly, monotone voices. Sometimes their words appear on the screen, but most times they do not. There's an old saying: "Idleness is the devil's tool." There is much addiction in rural or non-busy locales. This scene could drive a...



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