Released: June 2021
Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Run Time: 86 Minutes
Not Rated
Distributor: iFC Films
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Cast:
Kali Reis: Kaylee
Daniel Henshall: Bobby
Tiffany Chu: Linda
Michael Drayer: Danny
Kimberly Guerrero: Jaya
Kevin Dunn: Willie
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Movies about human trafficking have been done for decades, but people really didn’t start paying attention to the subject matter until Taken came along in 2009, starring Liam Neeson. It’s a heartbreaking situation, but it’s also a really hard one to impress on audiences how devastating it actually is. Some movies take it more seriously than others, while other movies just use it as an excuse to break skulls. It’s not a bad excuse, really, but it doesn’t really inform the audience as to how to deal with the situation. Even the last Rambo movie took a lot of it’s cues from Taken. There have been some movies that actually do take it seriously like Trade and Eden, but the execution isn’t always great. But there’s an even larger issue at stake here: A lot of these movies are centered around pretty young white women. It’s called the “missing white woman syndrome.” People go missing every single day, but the ones that get covered by the media are the young white girls. Why? I don’t think it’s always malicious, but it’s been theorized that it has everything to do with keeping white people on top. It makes sense. All the numbers of missing women and girls are mostly white. Sure, you get the occasional black or Asian woman, but those are few and far in between. Well, there’s a little indie thriller that was making its rounds at the Tribeca Film Festival last year that hopes to change that narrative a bit: Catch The Fair One.
Catch The Fair One stars Kali Reis as Kaylee, a Native American boxer. Her sister went missing two years ago, and Kaylee got a lead that her sister was abducted into a sex trafficking ring. So, Kaylee infiltrates the ring to find answers as well as the men responsible for her sister’s disappearance. It’s about as straight-forward a plot as you can get. It does away with any extreme twists and offers a top-notch and brutal thriller. You might be asking yourself, “what makes this movie different than any other, given it’s premise?” True, it might seem that way on the surface, but there’s more to this film than you might believe. First of all, the person abducted was a Native American. How many movies of this sort have you seen, where the focus is NOT on a pretty young white girl? Maybe a handful. The reality is that when indigenous women go missing, it’s very underreported, if at all. It’s a problem that the FBI hasn’t been able to get their finger on, really. But that could also be a part of the problem. Authorities aren’t trusted to not be a part of the problem. The other thing that this movie does is it sets the tone early on. Kaylee’s trainer admits that it’s been two years since Kaylee’s sister vanished. The odds of finding her alive, if at all, are statistically minimal at best. Some people might have an issue with the dire tone that the movie takes, but you have to understand that this is a problem affects Native American women on a daily basis. It’s a harsh reality, and I really like the fact that Catch The Fair One really shines a light on this particular problem.
It’s very rare to see a movie of this sort to be carried by someone who really has no real acting experience. Yet, Kali Reis not only carries the weight of the movie on her shoulders, she does it incredibly well. Her performance is incredibly natural, as you see her express rage, fear, anxiety, and doubt. What makes her stand out, is that Kali herself is a boxer. A two-time world champion boxer, I might add. The fact that she’s half-Native and half-Cape Verdean makes her stand out that much more. It’s an ancestry that Kali carries with pride and you see that in this movie. She exudes so much power in this movie, it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. You’ve got STRONG female characters, strong FEMALE characters, and strong female CHARACTERS. Kali and her character embody all three of these aspects incredibly well. I would not want to be interrogated by this woman. She doesn’t need to yell to be intimidating. Her presence is amazing. As a professional athlete, Kali handles the physicality of the role incredibly well. It looks like she does most of her own stunts and fighting, because that’s what she does for a living. What I really admire about Kali is that in reality she’s a very strong advocate for Native rights and is an active supporter of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement. That alone explains why she took on this movie, as she also a story-writing credit, so this is clearly a passion project for Ms. Reis. The acting across the board is really solid, even though Kevin Dunn isn’t really given a whole lot to do, but this is Kali Reis’s show first and foremost. This is about her trying to give a voice to the indigenous women and children that have gone missing over the years. I think she succeeded.
I would not call this an action movie, even if it is paced like one. The tone is very different from movies like Taken. It’s grim, downbeat, but the reason for that is pretty clear. This is a serious movie about a very serious topic, and the violence makes that even more clear. As some critics have said, this is a bruiser of a movie. You can feel the violence, it’s incredibly hard-hitting and messy. Kaylee is not some secret agent with a “particular set of skills.” She’s a sister trying to find answers and she’s willing to do some serious damage to get them, and she does, but she also makes mistakes along the way. She’s driven and that can be problematic. I love the pacing of the movie. Once it gets going, it doesn’t let you go. You’re along for the ride. 86 Minutes is a good length for this film. While the story is serious, it’s still an entertaining watch. Watching Kali go to town on these scumbags is incredibly satisfying.
There are some issues that I do have. They might seem a bit of the nitpicky variety, but they’re significant enough to warrant a mention at least. First of all, some of the dialogue is a little heavy-handed from the bad guys. They’re not excessively over-the-top, but some of the stuff that they say is a little much. Also, the ending of the movie is going to be an issue for some people. I’m not going to spoil it, but I am kind of torn about it. That’s all I’ll say about the ending. My big gripe comes with the home video release. I understand that doing special features for DVDs and Blu-Rays is not cheap, but I would’ve loved to have seen some interviews with Kali Reis about the film. I would love to get her perspective on this movie and what it means for Native Americans, because that’s clearly who this is aimed at. Unfortunately, we don’t get anything on the disc, not even the trailer. All my complaints aside, Catch The Fair One is an outstanding film. Kali Reis is phenomenal in her feature-film debut. Considering that she’s really busy at the moment with being a fighter and activist, I would love to see her tackle another movie. I think she’s fantastic, and she can clearly command the screen. So, yeah, Catch The Fair One is one of the best indie films that I’ve seen in a long time. I think more people need to see it.