2021 has been a year filled with disappointing movies. The pandemic has played a crucial factor, with many studios opting to push back their release dates to 2022 (or 2023), hoping that theaters can lure audiences back once those who are more tentative feel safe again. Movies, as a whole, couldn’t get worse than the 2020 batch. Unfortunately, 2021 has proven to be worse. There are still a handful of films that I haven’t seen that I hope will elevate the year (Dune, Nightmare Alley, Belfast, Spider-Man: No Way Home, C’mon C’mon, Being the Ricardos, Licorice Pizza, Red Rocket, Spencer, Last Night in Soho).
If even a few of these meet my expectations, I feel far better about my top ten list for the year. When I look at that list now, I cringe. However, the two most recent movies I’ve seen have likely sealed permanent spots on that list. The first, A Hero, was a complete surprise. The second, Clint Bentley’s directorial debut, Jockey, was not. Jockey was a movie I had heard about since the summer as having Oscar buzz for Clifton Collins, Jr. (Triple 9, The Mule). It’s a movie I did not watch a trailer for, choosing instead to go in blind. It was a great decision.
At 51, Collins Jr. gets his first chance to lead a movie of this caliber. While much of that momentum has waned in recent months, it still is neat to read when his name is in the same conversation with some of the other powerhouse performances of the year. His portrayal of Jackson Silva is soft yet secure, offering an intimate look at a man at the tail-end of his career that the outside world only catches glimpses of. Jockeys are notorious for having battle scars. Like boxers or mixed martial arts athletes, jockeys must also gain weight before competition. These smaller men who require the strength to handle 1000-pound racing horses obsess over their workout routines and diet, resulting in frail bones.
Like his fellow competitors, Jackson has a litany of injuries, including a back that he’s broken at least three times. However, when we meet him, he’s hiding an injury that even scares him. His right hand shakes, he cannot grip the harness the way he needs to, and his position in the saddle isn’t relatively upright. It’s enough to scare any sane man into retirement, but we learn that jockeys aren’t like most men. Knowing that the news he receives likely will be even more dire than his mind can imagine, Jackson refuses to see a doctor. Instead, he regularly attends meetings with fellow jockeys. In Jockey, I at first thought that these meetings were AA meetings. But rather, it’s just his fellow racers who meet to talk about their pain. We get to attend one of these meetings with Jackson. You would think that the meetings are ongoing with the same group. Still, different racers appear on various circuits, so when Jackson hears about a fellow competitor’s injury for the first time, so do we.
Jackson’s home track is one near Phoenix called Turf Paradise. While he has had little success in many years, he is still the best Jockey. Jackson has also stayed loyal to his longtime horse trainer, Ruth (Molly Paker – American Pastoral, The Wicker Man). She has done the same with him. Jackson has gone so long without racing that he isn’t even close to his competition weight. However, when Ruth comes across a horse (named Dido’s Lament) that other owners passed over, she purchases the mare with her own money. Unaware of Jackson’s current hand-shaking issues, she offers him Dido’s Lament to ride. When riding the horse, he shares that this one is special in Ruth’s observation. There’s a glimmer in each of their eyes and a hope in each of their voices that this is their calling card to get back to the winner’s circle. In this regard, it’s a predictable format, and it’s easy to guess what is likely to happen.
However, adding a new twist to the story is a younger rider named Gabriel (Moises Arias) has caught the eye of Jackson, not because of his success on the circuit, but because he keeps arriving at the same tracks, asking questions about Jackson. Jackson approaches the tentative yet respectful Gabriel at a local coffee shop. The casual conversation changes abruptly when Gabriel claims he is Jackson’s son, something Jackson immediately says isn’t true. But as the story progresses, Jackson has the opportunity to get to know the young man. Finally, we arrive at a point where either Jackson thinks that maybe Gabriel could be his son, or he still knows that it isn’t possible (based on the timeline with Gabriel’s mom), but he doesn’t care. It’s as if he’s been given this late-in-life gift, and if he can impart some of his learned wisdom to this young man and have a meaningful relationship with him, it doesn’t matter if the two are connected by blood.
A beautifully shot picture, Jockey tells a reasonably predictable story with a couple of wrenches thrown in along the way. They only partially work, but I appreciated the attempt. Jockey gives us a behind-the-scenes look at a sport that most don’t know much about. If your type of movie is a docudrama, you’ll appreciate the purposeful pacing and simple storytelling. Unfortunately, as realistic as Jockey seems, its lack of glamour makes it less of a memorable movie than I was ultimately hoping for it to be. Nonetheless, I’m confident it has a home in my end-of-year Top 10, though I’ll be the first to admit that 2021 is one of the worst years for movie releases during my lifetime.
Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
89%
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