Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival 2024 – Few films capture the rigor and struggle of the creative process as well as Dandelion, written and directed by Nicole Riegel. As Riegel said during a Q & A following the film, this feature is much more about the process than it is the results. It’s about the painstaking hours and labor that goes into making art, in this case music.

KiKi Layne stars as Cincinatti resident Dandelion, who, three nights a week, plays music, including the same Gin Blossoms cover over and over again, to an unresponsive crowd a hotel bar. No one listens to her when she’s in front of the mic. Instead, they text, chat, drink, and laugh, all while totally ignoring her. Still, Dandelion dreams of making it big, but she’s tethered to her hometown because she takes care of her ailing mother (Melanie Nicholls-King). This is a classic narrative about a protagonist who feels stuck and dreams of something more. Both Layne and Nicholls-King really turn in top-notch performances, playing a mother and daughter at odds. In fact, at one point dear old mom tells Dandelion that she shouldn’t aim to be a 40-year-old troubadour. Ouch!

Hoping to catch her big break, Dandelion travels to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota of all places. Riegel really has a way of making her protagonist navigate uncomfortable spaces. Dandelion is jeered off the stage after attempting her brand of sad girl music before an audience that likes their music ear-splitting loud. Even before she arrives in South Dakota, Dandelion works a job where no one takes her seriously, and, in another scene, enters a pawnshop adorned with pictures of male musicians. She’s an outcast in the music scene alright, at least until she meets the tortured Casey (Thomas Doherty), a musician who gave up his band for a more normal 9-5 life.

Like Dandelion, Casey also feels trapped. Reconnecting with his old bandmates at the motorcycle rally, coupled with meeting Dandelion, makes him pine for days of yesteryear, before he had a family. Doherty and Layne certainly have on-screen chemistry, and much of the film focuses on their songwriting process. In fact, there’s one particular scene that Riegel filmed for nine hours that simply captures the duo writing one of their first songs together, line by line, lyric by lyric. On paper, this scene should feel rather dull, but it’s a powerful moment on film, showing just how tough the creative process can be and how you have to work for the Muse. There are some scenes that feel like they drag on too long and bog down the film, but this is not one of them.

The songs, such a key component of this feature, were written by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, whose roots are in Cincinnati. Lyrically, each tune serves to benefit and advance the narrative and underscore the relationship between Dandelion and Casey. You’ll come to really enjoy seeing these two on stage and on screen together.

Dandelion is a dazzling film about dreams deferred, the challenges of being an artist, and the process. Creatives will relate to this one, but Layne and Doherty’s combined performance and dynamic give this broader appeal. Even if their relationship may be doomed to fail, they make one heck of a duo.

8 Out of 10