Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival: Reviewing the showcase of independent films

The Rider

Director: Chloe Zhao

Summary: Rising rodeo star Brady Blackburn suffers a near-fatal head injury during a competition and must figure out what that means for his identity while bearing the weight of significant expectations from friends, family and the community in his home in the Heartland. The film is a fictionalized version of the real-life experience of its star, Brady Jandreau.

My take: This was another highly buzzed about film, thanks in part to Zhao’s own reputation, and yet again, I don’t think it deserves the hype. It’s well-directed, well-shot, with effortlessly pretty scenery. It also tugs at the heartstrings and is well-acted. It even boasts the rare concept of telling a fictionalized version of a true story with real-life people acting as themselves, undoubtedly adding a layer of depth and intrigue. But I found the story to be… incomplete.

Brady’s story is certainly compelling. But Brady’s struggle to decide whether he wants to ride again and risk his life, or to let go of his dream and find another seems to be entirely dependent on what the last person he spoke to said. Even if Brady really did have pressure from various people to go different routes, something about the way the film plot was structured made it seem like a frustrating pinball game of opinions and actions. Brady did a bunch of things related to quitting or riding again. People weighed in on those things, unsolicited. That’s that. I felt there was a disconnect between the emotions and the actions.

Additionally, a substantial portion of the film involved Brady’s bond with another rodeo competitor, Lane Scott, his real-life friend who suffered a fall in competition before Brady’s own incident. Lane fared far worse, becoming paralyzed from the neck down and losing extensive physical and mental capacity. Given his more extreme condition, Lane’s presence in the film detracted from Brady’s story – because Lane’s is more compelling in terms of intensity. How do you care as much about someone who simply may not get to ride a horse again, when you’re seeing someone who may never talk like himself or even walk again?

All in all, the film just didn’t do it for me – though the story is heart-breakingly intriguing and my hats off to Brady the actor, Brady the person, and all those involved in the film.

Rating: 3

Decide for yourself what you think of the film by following it at: http://sonyclassics.com/therider/