Kiki Layne found her character’s songwriting and singing voice at the same time the talented actress and model found her own. Layne, (If Beale Street Could Talk, Coming to America) read Nicole Riegel’s script about a young girl from Cincinnati trying to find her way, immediately relating to her journey. Layne has always wanted to explore her musical abilities and she’s also a Cincinnati native. The actress immediately saw herself in that character and especially the gentrification of working class neighborhoods in the city she grew up in.
Layne collaborated with Grammy award-winning songwriters Aaron and Bryce Dessner (Relevant, Cyrano). They worked to help develop songs and lyrics to use her knowledge of Cincinnati and her musical abilities.
Watch our interview with Kiki Layne talking about working on the film and telling us at the Chicago Critics Film Festival that and her next dream is to be in an action film as a superhero.
Writer/Director Nicole Riegel’s film gets off to a slow start, but gains momentum following the struggles and humiliation of singer-songwriter wannabe Dandelion. We see her performing in bars and hotel lounges for sparse and often rude audiences. She was supposed to go on a 6-month-tour when her Mom (Melanie Nicholls-King) got sick and she had to cancel.
Dandelion, on a downward spiral, decides to makes a last-ditch-effort for exposure with a gig at a motorcycle rally in South Dakota. That’s where she meets Casey (Thomas Doherty, Gossip Girls), a guitarist who walked away from his dream long ago. As Dandelion joins Casey’s nomadic group of struggling musicians, the kindred spirits make music together, sparking Dandelion’s dream to create songs with Casey and more songs of her own.
They enjoy composing and singing together at the festival and taking long rides into the South Dakota Badlands. Ironically, Layne says, the wide open spaces are breathtakingly beautiful and absolutely silent. An interesting counterpoint to music-making. She and Casey strike up a sexy romance that does not develop into what Dandelion thought it would be. Casey is already taken, but through the young composer and musician’s emotional journey and perseverance, Dandelion finds a deeper understanding of her artistic journey, finally discovering music as a way to channel her talent and make art all her own. Even her mother encourages saying , “Find something you like…gives you joy, Miss Dandelion.”
chops making this film. The culmination of Dandelion finding her way in this film as a musical powerhouse is a spectacular performance lit in deep red hues, where she let’s it all hang out, shredding like a pro. Layne admitted that she did not do the guitar-shredding in the last scenes. It was her guitar teacher, Noah Harmon, who fired it up.
There are moments when Dandelion descends into bouts of whining self-pity, but her eventual emergence and growth let’s her journey end on an upbeat, triumphant note. Nicole Riegel and Kiki Layne remind us that for every Taylor Swift or Beyoncé there are thousands of Dandelions fighting for their chance to bloom and blossom.
IFC Films 1 Hour 53 Minutes R
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