“Tendaberry”

“Tendaberry” reminds me of a mediocre “American Honey” copycat in an already crowded indie film landscape of loosely outlined stories about young women on their own in the big city. Despite a clear and confident voice, writer – director Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s debut feature is too thin and thematically diluted to be memorable, making it a ponderous chore of a movie rather than the work of an exciting new voice to be celebrated.

Afro-Latina singer-songwriter Dakota (Kota Johan) abruptly finds herself on her own in New York City after her boyfriend Yuri (Yuri Pleskun) returns to Ukraine to be by his ailing father’s side.

It’s a character study about an uninteresting person, which is a recipe for disaster. Dakota hops around Brooklyn panhandling for money and hanging on light posts. She tries to make a living with her singing (which is bad, and Anderson insists on including too many scenes of it in her film).

Johan is serviceable in the lead role, but she doesn’t have much to work with. The cacophony of filmmaking styles drowns out the more intimate and intricate details of her performance, which, under better circumstances, could’ve been the most successful element of “Tendaberry.”

By: Louisa Moore