Sundance ’18 and Rotterdam ‘18: ‘The Rider’
By Peter Belsito
One of the best Sundance films for me.
‘The Rider’ is a film about young Americans who participate in a dead end sport — bronco rodeo riding.
Brady (Brady Jandreau) is a rising rodeo star suffering from a traumatic head injury sustained in the ring. Almost killed, he now wears a steel slate inside his skull and it has deeply affected him and his ability to be active as he was.
Though he longs to climb back in the saddle, Brady finds himself torn between the macho allure of cowboy life and obligations to his widowed father and autistic sister (both played by Jandreau’s real-life family members).
During visits with Lane — a paraplegic ex-rodeo star — and amid struggles to train an ornery horse, Brady is forced to face a life outside of the ring.
The film slowly becomes less about action and the rodeo and more of a family film.
The Rider is a rare gem, a small, acutely observed portrait of a few lives on what used to be the frontier but is now a desolate backwater, the windswept badlands around Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
The film beautifully captures the way a handful of people stoically deal with the meager hands life has dealt them.
The flavor of the Old West permeates every aspect of this quiet, sensitive piece; and the people in it live lives very similar to those they would have lived in generations past, save for the weed and cellphones.
While rodeo and horse training have always been, and promised to remain, Brady’s life, and the doctors’ edict that he’s got to give it all up is tough to take.
The film is dominated by Brady’s inner turmoil about his diminished physical abilities.
While he knows his physical condition remains impaired — his right hand has become so gnarled that he is constantly obliged to pry his fingers out of a curl — Brady is forced to admit the truth about his condition.
While physically he slowly improves, you can essentially read his mind as he begins weighing the idea of living a life that precludes the possibility of climbing back on a horse and competing again.
A young man’s existential dilemma whose family helps to steer him back to life.
Nice work here.
****
Debuting in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, The Rider went on to play in Toronto and other festivals beforeWinner of nine awards including Cannes Film Festival’s C.I.C.A.E. Award, Deaville’s Grand Special Prize to director Chloé Zhao, Palm Springs Film Festival’s Director to Watch, Reykjavik for Best Film.
This is Director-Writer Chloé Zhao’s second film.
Stars: Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau
U.S. Distribution by Sony Pictures Classics.
International sales agent Protagonist has licensed the film to Mongrel for Canada, Weltkino for Germany, Ama for Greece, Lev Cinemas/ Shani or Israel, Cineworx for Switzerland, Fabula for Turkey
