Simply stated, the best thing going for Chloé Zhao’s (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Nomadland) The Rider is its authenticity. The plot is not that different than hundreds of other movies you’ve seen before. Yet, it feels refreshingly new and real at the same time. This is due primarily to the vision of the young and talented Zhao as well as the decisions that she made along the way. This includes her hiring of locals to play all of the characters in the film, her choice of setting (Pine Ridge Indian Reservation), her hiring of cinematographer Joshua James Richards to capture the exhaustive landscape of the South Dakota reservation, and her decision of filming this to almost feel like a documentary. Every decision she made worked. Film purists will love this. Those who need the flare or those who need to need forced attempts to bring out the sentiment might be disappointed. I found myself to be somewhere in the middle. The film has a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (83% audience rating). That feels about right for the critics and a little high for the audience score. I will say early that I likely would not have seen this movie if it hadn’t been recommended to me by a longtime friend. While I didn’t like it as much as she did, it was a very good recommendation and a film that I’m glad that I saw.

The film might suffer from its title more than anything else. I do recall seeing posters from this film when I was at my local cinema. I saw the title and saw the picture and instantly thought, “Nicholas Sparks novel.” I was so convinced that I didn’t even bother to investigate it any further. This was anything but, and I blame the marketing of this movie as a deterrent to its commercial success. As mentioned, this is not a story we haven’t seen played out on the screen before. In fact, it might be the most overplayed plot in film history. A person, successful at their craft, has to change the trajectory of their life after an incident (or incidents) happen that for them to do so. What’s different is the content.  Brady (Brady Jandreau), our protagonist, is a rodeo star, doing the whole 8 seconds thing, trying to stay on a bucking horse that wants nothing more than to throw this unwanted man off his back. A good bronc rider (yes, this is the term) can stay on even the wildest of horses more frequently than others. Brady was one of the best, at least in the local community. There is not much of a regional scene, let alone a national scene. Brady and the other riders compete in state fairs and other events near their homes. And while a paycheck is a motivating factor for these men, it is more a way of life than a dream of some massive success. And that is evident with the mild Brady, one of the most likable characters you’ll see on screen in 2018.

We meet Brady in the film’s opening scenes, in a dark room in his small home. He’s attempting to remove some thick staples from his head. Though I don’t believe we ever see the particular incident (though we do see plenty of 8-second rides via Youtube from Brady’s phone throughout over the course of the movie), we learn that this once rising star on the rodeo circuit was knocked off of a wild horse at a recent bronc riding competition. As a result of the horse’s hoof landing straight on his skill, Brady suffered so much brain damage that his brain sends seizures to other parts of his body. This includes the motor functioning of his right hand, which hampers his functions so much that he often has to peel his hand open each time it is in a clutched position. Brady lives at home with his set in his ways father Wayne (Tim Jandreau) and autistic sister Lily (Lilly Jandreau). Horses, horse training, and horse riding are what his family, friends, and community do. It’s what they know. It is the only career path that Brady knows. Besides training and riding horses, he has no other skills. He takes a local grocery store job and spends his shift stocking shelves, working the register, cleaning bloody knives in the meat room, or mopping floors. He convinces himself and others that it is only temporary while his body heals to the point where he can ride again. It becomes all too real when a young boy and his older brother recognize him and ask for a picture with the local star, the young boy wondering why one of his heroes was fronting women’s deodorant in the personal care aisle of the market.

There is a loving relationship between Brady and his rodeo friends. He clearly had had the most success of his group of four, and all know it. It’s delicate when they all talk about Brady getting back on the saddle. All know that it’s probably not a reality and if he does do it, the clear risks involved. But nothing in the movie is more poignant than the friendship between Brady and his buddy Lane. Lane was a rodeo rider as well. He suffered far more seriously than Brady did. It leaves him as a person with paraplegia in an assisted living facility. Worse, he lost his vocal cords and can only communicate by signing the 26 letters of the alphabet. There are three or four scenes with Brady visiting his good friend at his assisted living home. It’s a real relationship. It’s clear that Brady isn’t with Lane because he feels sorry for him or wants to feel better about himself. It’s actually Lane who sees the unspoken sadness in his friend and tells him not to give up on his dreams. Ironically, it is his time with Lane that Brady seems to be his best self. He’s alive. He smiles. He’s in a safe place. What Zhao did not do with this movie is going for the melodramatic. I’m trying to remember if a character even cries in this movie (though you might like my friend). In fact, the depression that Brady suffers from is quiet. You see it in his eyes…this resolution that his dreams are gone. He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t yell. He doesn’t act out. He doesn’t even get all that mad. It is in his nonverbal actions that we can see all that he has lost. We see it constantly in his eyes. We see it through his quietness around his friends. We see it in his soft interactions with his younger sister. We see it as we watch him lost in thought about the potential of never being able to ride a horse again.

The poorest developed character was Wayne. As Brady’s father, there was an irregularity in his character. Was he tough as nails, or was there a tenderness for his children. Well, we saw a little of both, but there wasn’t a whole lot of rhyme or reason. And with this film taking place over the course of about a month, his actions were inconsistent, and he just felt out of place compared to the other characters in the story. But there was a sympathetic realness to everything that Zhao did (outside of the development of Wayne). Rather than forcing down our throats what the characters should be feeling, she allows us to make our own conclusions by what we witness. She makes sure we understand just how important horses are to this community and especially its central characters in this film. As mentioned, this movie feels like a documentary a lot of the time. For example, when Brady is alone in his truck, you almost expect him to turn to the camera to tell us where he is going. You won’t pick up on it at first, but I think you will when the film is halfway done. And you certainly will if you read this review before seeing this film.

I didn’t love The Rider, but I would still recommend seeing it if you see it come across a cable channel. It’s not a movie to pick up halfway through. I think you’ll be bored. Catch it from the start.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 8/10
81.5%