Film
The Exiles
The Exiles captures one night in the lives of young Native Americans navigating Los Angeles after leaving their reservations. Shot in stark black-and-white, it's a restless, observational film about displacement, identity, and finding moments of joy in a city that isn't built for them. Essential viewing for anyone interested in early independent cinema or Native American representation before it became fashionable to care.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like films that drift through a single night with patience, letting ordinary talk, bar rooms and restless wandering gather weight until they feel like a life.
Skip it if you need plot and momentum; this is loose, observational and often shapeless, so long stretches of hanging around may test your patience at seventy-two minutes.
What it asks of you: It runs a brisk seventy-two minutes, yet it moves at the pace of idle afternoons, with long unhurried silences and aimless wandering that want you to settle into mood rather than wait for events.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Shadows1960
John Cassavetes' improvised masterpiece about identity and belonging in New York City. Like The Exiles, it's raw, handheld, and treats marginalized lives with complete seriousness and dignity.
But The acting is intentionally loose and sometimes mumbled. If you want a tightly plotted story, this will frustrate you.
Killer of Sheep1978
Charles Burnett's lyrical portrait of working-class Black life in Watts, LA. Same aesthetic DNA as The Exiles—observational, poetic, refusing to make poverty or struggle palatable for white audiences.
But It's deliberately slow and mood-driven. There's no conventional narrative arc, just life as it happens.
Chungking Express1994
Wong Kar-wai's nocturnal love letter to urban loneliness and displacement. The restless, drifting energy matches The Exiles' night-time energy, but with visual lyricism instead of documentary realism.
But It's ornate and elliptical. If you prefer clarity and plot, the fragmentary storytelling may feel evasive.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Exiles
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Ascent1977
Both films use a single night and a group's journey as a vessel for exploring dignity, transcendence, and the spiritual weight of ordinary survival.
Larisa Shepitko's metaphysical film about two Soviet partisans' final ascent. Like The Exiles it follows a group through a single night, but transforms sociological observation into spiritual inquiry. The connection: both films insist on the sacred in overlooked lives.
But It's wordless and symbolic. If you need narrative clarity and dialogue, it will feel impossibly opaque.
More like this (7)
Naked1993
Mike Leigh's brutal, brilliant portrait of a man adrift in London. Like The Exiles, it's intimate, unflinching about class and displacement, and finds dark humor in desperation without ever mocking its subjects.
But The main character is deeply misogynistic and often repellent. It's difficult viewing, and the nihilism might not lift.
La Jetée1962
Chris Marker's experimental sci-fi poem told mostly through still photographs. Radical formally, like The Exiles, and equally committed to exploring consciousness and time through unconventional means.
But It's only 28 minutes and barely narrative. If you need traditional filmmaking, this will seem like an art stunt.
Daughter of Shanghai1937
Oland's thriller about identity and survival in an immigrant community. Early studio-era cinema that nonetheless centers Asian American experience, predating The Exiles' concern for sidelined communities.
But It's a B-movie with plot contrivances. The earnestness is admirable but the craft is uneven.
Sweetie1989
Jane Campion's debut about sisters in suburban Australia. Like The Exiles, it's jagged and affectionate about people society deems worthless, and uses black-and-white to make alienation tactile.
But The protagonist is often cruel and selfish. If you need to like your lead character, you'll resist this.
Black Girl1966
Ousmane Sembène's vital essay on colonialism and identity. An African precursor to The Exiles' project: cinema for and about people whose stories were being systematically ignored.
But At 60 minutes it's dense with ideas. It reads like a manifesto, and some may find it didactic.
The Killing1956
Kubrick's hardboiled heist film has the same street-level sensibility as The Exiles, and shares its interest in ordinary people trying to survive outside the system.
But It's genre entertainment, not art cinema. If you're expecting formal innovation like The Exiles, you'll find it conventional.
Red Psalm1972
Both reject conventional narrative and character development in favor of observation and atmosphere. Both trust the viewer to find meaning in how a camera looks at people.
Miklós Jancsó's radical, almost-wordless Hungarian film about peasants and revolution. Formally daring in ways The Exiles only approaches, it shares the same commitment to showing us marginalized lives with complete visual and moral seriousness.
But It's nearly incomprehensible on first viewing. Long static shots, no plot, and philosophical abstraction may feel like punishment.
People
Cast
- Yvonne WilliamsYvonne
- Homer NishHomer
- Tom ReynoldsTommy
- Rico RodriguezRico
- Clifford Ray SamCliff
- Clydean ParkerClaudine
- Mary DonahueMary
- Eddie SunriseSinger on Hill X