The Rider
Casting non-actors, Chloé Zhao creates a lyrical and authentic film about life as a rodeo cowboy
Chloé Zhao took a risk by casting non-actors in The Rider. After some stiffness and uncertainty in the early scenes, it pays off handsomely. As the rodeo rider recovering from a near-fatal head injury, Brady Jandreau is essentially playing himself, having suffered through this same experience in 2016, and he brings a quiet, introspective quality to his work. Brady knows that getting back on the horse is putting his life at risk, but what else can he do?
The young men in The Rider live for those eight seconds on the back of a bucking bronco, and when you take that away from Brady his life suddenly looks very empty. The Rider is a perceptive film about coping with loss and finding a sense of purpose, and Zhao’s sensitive direction gives her cast room to inhabit their roles, to bring us into their world. In particular, the scenes in which Brady tends to his friend Lane Scott (a former champion paralysed after an accident), or his beloved horses, possess the kind of purity and authenticity that can’t be faked.
Released by Altitude