BEANS makes its rage and joy known as Tekahentahkhwa embraces her abilities and identity. Kiawentiio’s vibrant performance lends freshness to familiar beats and grows in size and autonomy through this self-discovery in history.

| Nov 30, 2023

'Beans' is not a masterpiece, but it’s a significant debut. I look forward to watching Deer hone her craft as a filmmaker — perhaps next time with a bigger budget and wider distribution. Because I’m sure she still has stories to tell.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 22, 2022

With Kiawentiio’s sensitive performance at its center, Beans accumulates power as it goes thanks to Deer’s thoughtful direction.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 11, 2022

Beans is a necessary, stirring piece of art that serves as both a poignant coming-of-age story and a heartbreaking history lesson.

| Feb 23, 2022

An indigenous girl's coming of age as a warrior protecting tribal lands.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 13, 2021

The director has all my respect for what she went through and for trying to do something with it, but there's so much room to improve here in terms of filmmaking and storytelling.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 28, 2021

We could use more of these films to help guide girls through their self discovery, and help families support them on their journey.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2021

Beans underscores the continuing fight to protect indigenous land, native culture and tradition. One cannot help but be moved by this powerful story.

| Nov 14, 2021

The story has an earthy resonance that has strong echoes in current conflicts on a range of issues.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 11, 2021

It makes for ideal viewing during Native American Heritage Month. But parents should be made aware it deals frankly with a variety of issues.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 11, 2021

Beans holds no surprises. It is a missed opportunity at telling the story of the Kanesatake standoff.

| Nov 11, 2021

Kiawentiio delivers a grown-up performance about growing up under perilous happenings.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 10, 2021

Technically well-crafted, and well-cast, it's heavy-handed and maudlin at times. Still, even the cliches it purveys are offered from a cultural perspective seldom given voice in narrative cinema, with the recent Canadian history lesson a major bonus.

| Nov 8, 2021

Is this the best possible way to tell each of these stories? Maybe not, but for the most part it works ...

| Nov 8, 2021

To Deer's credit, she does not back down from the cruelty that older, white people demonstrate toward the community, including children. (Archival footage of the real incident more than backs up Deer's portrayal.)

| Nov 5, 2021

It's not hard not to feel that an even more resonant film would go deeper into what's underneath these various landmarks of maturity and identity, instead of predominantly just pointing them out.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 5, 2021

Tension simmers beneath the surface of an insightful film that resonates with authenticity while retaining a sense of urgency in a divided world.

| Nov 5, 2021

A coming-of-age film about children who are forced to grow up too fast in the face of an important, shocking and heavy part in Canada's history.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 5, 2021

In our current climate of long-overdue reckoning with the sins of the past, Beans is a welcome addition to the conversation.

| Nov 4, 2021

Beans stands out not just as a coming-of-age tale, with a lead character whose struggle we understand and feel keenly, but as a drama of a painful and pivotal moment in Indigenous and Canadian history.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 4, 2021