Dance Me Outside [VHS]
Bruce McDonald's wry adaptation of aW.P. Kinsella novelis an engaging,  touching story about an awkward passage into manhood and love for an  18-year-old Indian metalhead on the Kidabanesee Reserve in Ontario.  Silas  Crow (Ryan Black) is a drifting young fellow dragging his feet about entering  a school for auto mechanics.  While loosely entertaining the idea of writing,  Silas unprofitably kills all his time with a thickheaded buddy, Frank  Fencepost (Adam Beach), and watches his old girlfriend, Sadie Maracle  (Jennifer Podemski), grow away from him as she takes up native issues with  admirable commitment.  A visit by Silas's older sister, Ilianna (Lisa LaCroix)  (with her new, white-and-uptight husband reluctantly in tow), plus the  simultaneous reappearance of Ilianna's old flame, ex-con Gooch (Michael  Greyeyes), and the unpunished murder of a native girl by a white thug set off  a series of events culminating in redemptive acts of love and honor.  Big  themes, yes, but McDonald (Highway 61) has wisely chosen to emphasize  the charm of his characters, make sport of spiritual clichés and Indian chic  (there's a funny bit in which Silas gets Ilianna's husband drunk and  introduces him to a bogus animal guide), and allow the cruelty of white  justice against natives to speak (often comically) for itself.--Tom  Keogh