Lily Gladstone, a Montana actress, worked her way from home-state theater and independent films to a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival.
On Saturday, Martin Scorsese’s new film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” finally had its world premiere at months of anticipation, earning nine minutes of applause, according to media outlets.
She performs with luminaries like Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tantoo Cardinal, to name a few among a typically star-studded cast that the famed director can attract.
Our gorgeous state was only in some of these films or series for a few minutes, but these are IMDb’s most highly rated movies and shows that were at least partially fimed in Montana.
Early career
First, some background: Gladstone (Blackfeet/Nez Perce) grew up in Browning and East Glacier, then moved to Seattle with her family when she was 11. She returned to her home state and earned her BFA in acting at the University of Montana and toured with the Montana Repertory Theatre in “The Miracle Worker.” After graduation, she acted in plays and independent films, including “Winter in the Blood,” a 2013 adaptation of the novel by James Welch (Blackfeet/Gros Ventre) by directors Alex and Andrew Smith.
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Her breakthrough role was in director Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women.” That 2016 feature happened to be another adaptation of work by a Montana author: Maile Meloy. Reichardt translated her short stories of female protagonists into vignettes, with Gladstone starring opposite Kristen Stewart.
After receiving national acclaim for that performance, Gladstone scored a role on the Showtime series “Billions,” and then in “Reservation Dogs,” a ground-breaking series from Indigenous creators Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi.
In “Killers of the Flower Moon,” she portrays Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, whose family and people have become enriched by oil on their land in 1920s Oklahoma. The wealth makes them a target, and what seemed to be random illnesses turn out to be something far more heinous. It’s based on real-life events, chronicled by journalist David Grann in his book of the same title.
Here are some responses after the screening:
A standing ovation
It drew a lengthy standing ovation that CNN estimated at seven minutes, after which Scorsese thanked the Osage people.
Osage reactions
Jim Gray, former chief of the Osage Nation, is the great-grandson of Henry Roan, one of the victims in the book. He consulted with the filmmakers and has seen the film before its premiere. He tweeted his thoughts on the film after Saturday’s premiere:
“It was excellent. Scorsese even captured some of our humor. The performances across the board were Oscar-worthy, I mean it. I’ve never seen a movie like this before. No White Savior, nothing needed to be made up. The violence is real and the music of the Osage language was beautifully spoken by all of the actors especially the non-Osage actors. At some point I stopped worrying about the subtitles. But the ending. Oh man, you will not forget the ending. But you’re going to have to see the film for that.”
Shannon Shaw duty, editor of Osage News, wrote a review from Cannes:
“She steals every scene she’s in. Her presence, her depth, her control, the nuances she brings to the role, she’s brilliant. In person, she’s as kind as she is beautiful. She deserves every accolade she receives.”
In a conversation after the screening, Gladstone said: “I can’t think of another story up to this time that has helped an audience fall in love with a Native woman so that people will [care] about all of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women that we are dealing with now that people don’t look for, except for search parties, families.”
Rolling Stone
Their reviewer called it “an indictment of white supremacy, then and now,” and a masterpiece as “brimming with reverence for a culture that survived a horrible trauma as it is filled with exhilarating flourishes, film history references, and explorations of the faultline between the sacred and profane.”
New York Times
Gladstone’s husband in the movie, Ernest Burkhart, is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Manhola Dargis of the New York Times wrote:
“With her beauty, stillness and sly Mona Lisa smile, Mollie exerts a great gravitational force on Ernest and the viewer alike; you’re both quickly smitten. DiCaprio will earn most of the attention, but without Gladstone, the movie wouldn’t have the same slow-building, soul-heavy emotional impact.”
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw also highlighted the dynamics of their relationship:
“Gladstone creates a persona for Mollie that is flawed and self-reproachful, with some shame at having collaborated with her persecutor. She has dignity and calm and rises above the squalor all around her, but that calm is also the stricken immobility of illness.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is slated for theatrical release in October.