Smoke Signals is a road movie with an acid sense of humor and a heritage-ridden theme that’s as universal as it is specific.

Smoke Signals may be the most delightfully quirky surprise of the summer, a shaggy-dog tale that from its opening moments... portrays the Native American legacy of pride and pain with deep emotion, grace and irreverence.

It is a warm film of friendship and reconciliation, and whenever it refers to historic injustices or contemporary issues in Native American culture, it does so with wry, glancing humor. Smoke Signals is indeed poignant, but above all it's pretty funny.

[Sherman] Alexie’s screenplay is full of modest but vivid details and first-time director Eyre has an almost effortless touch in getting them on the screen with an easy mosaic-like mix of snapshots of life on the Rez and on the road mixed.