‘The Rider’ Review: An Overlooked Gem
There are droves of kitchen-sink realist dramas out there to be consumed, all presenting their own bittersweet slices of life. Many of them are good but at a certain point they tend to meld together. It’s rare for one to stick out the way 2018’s “The Rider” does. It’s not necessarily for formal or narrative reasons. Where many of these movies are about realism, “The Rider” is about real-ness.
“The Rider” is about cowboy Brady Blackburn, who must make a pivotal choice about his career as a rodeo rider when he suffers a serious brain injury. Will he continue doing what he loves to earn a living even if it kills him? Or will he retire and move on to a quiet life, even if it makes it more difficult to provide for his family? These questions are as ordinary as they are difficult, and they make for great drama. But when one watches “The Rider”, something feels off at first. Brady doesn’t seem like an actor. He looks awkward in front of the camera. He doesn’t enunciate or project his emotions the way trained actors do. It soon becomes apparent that he is not an actor. Brady Blackburn is actually Brady Jandreau. His family in the movie is his family in real life. Their home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is their actual home. His friends in the film are people who also live on the reservation. The Youtube videos of him doing rodeo stunts are actual videos of him.
“The Rider” is a movie about real people, who act out a fictional story that parallels their real lives. The inspiration for the film came when writer-director Chloe Zhao befriended Brady, and witnessed him make the difficult choice of giving up his career when he was severely injured in a rodeo accident. She then put a script together, inspired by Brady’s life as well as the lives of several other cowboys on the reservation and asked Brady himself to star. Brady also performs all his own stunts, including an incredibly tense horse-training sequence that is all done in a single take at a medium angle so you know no shortcuts were taken.
Making a semi-fictional film featuring non-actors is a delicate balancing act, and one that Chloe pulls off spectacularly. Many of the performers feel a bit stiff and awkward in front of the camera, but this pays big dividends when the story reaches its most emotional moments, and they deliver performances that are entirely without artifice. There is also the question of ethics, of how close or how far Chloe must hew to reality before the film becomes exploitative. I think it’s safe to say that she does her subject justice. These characters live hard lives, but their stories are told empathetically, judiciously, and respectfully.
“The Rider” captures an often unseen piece of the world that is unsettling not because it is different, but because it is so familiar. Much of what we try to ignore or forget about the world and about our own lives is brought into sharp focus in a way that is both illuminating and uncomfortable. “The Rider” confronts viewers with difficult questions about one’s purpose, one’s priorities, and with how precarious our existence really is. Chloe, her crew, and the many people who worked with her have made something that in spite of its many rough edges, is beautiful. It can be a rough watch, but the movie is one that can’t be missed.
