The Rider

Chloé Zhao (2017)

Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau Rated PG Run time 104 mins

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