The Rider

Rodeo riders in South Dakota and the risks they accept. Brady has to look for other opportunities after his career in the ring is interrupted. A portrait of the hopelessness and lack of opportunity abounding in America’s hinterlands. The film also surveys masculinity in crisis. Zhao balances the testosterone-filled adrenaline highs of the rodeo world with Brady’s tender relationship with his younger sister who has learning disabilities, and with other riders. The actors are non-professionals whose lives blur with their characters. The result is a haunting story alive with empathy and devoid of pity or condescension.

97% – Rotten Tomatoes
7.5/10 – IMDB

“This poetic, laconic and ineffably beautiful drama has an unerring feel for its subject, a young cowboy struggling against his implacable fate.”

“This slowly trotting movie contemplation is both immersive and emotionally wrenching.”

‘The Rider’ is the best film of 2018 so far – The Atlantic

Wild Horses: How ‘The Rider’ Became the Breakout Movie of 2018