The Rider (2017)
November 11, 2018 12:22 PM - Subscribe

After suffering a serious head injury, a young cowboy undertakes a search for new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of America. Stars real-life rodeo rider Brady Jandreau and his family in a near-documentary story of learning to live after his injury makes it impossible for him to continue riding.
posted by migurski (7 comments total)
 
Aaand I just learned that director Chloé Zhao is doing the Marvel Eternals space gods film so that’s weird.
posted by migurski at 12:27 PM on November 11, 2018


I thought that this movie was great, and I also thought it was really weird that the MCU folks looked at it and thought welp, she's for us.

But if you think of it as a genre movie, which in a weird way it is—neo-realism smashed together with the Western—then it makes more sense to me that she could do interesting things with a Marvel movie. And I also think that what makes The Rider really good is that genre collision—the myth of the West as still alive but as ungraspable as ever for these extremely specific people; the acute realization of physical frailty as always part of the glamour of the rodeo, but worn differently for Brady now that the possibility of death is more alive for him than his friends.

So I guess I can see how the sensibility would transfer, though I'm not sure how her aesthetic will.
posted by felix grundy at 12:59 PM on November 11, 2018


I haven't had the chance to see this yet, but I was hooked by the interviews with Jandreau and Zhao on Fresh Air this spring.
posted by maudlin at 2:46 PM on November 11, 2018 [2 favorites]


This one is sad though lovely in its way. It's always hard to watch someone come to accept that they can no longer do the work that they love and did so well, but are no longer physically capable of doing.
posted by orange swan at 5:22 AM on April 24, 2019


Just watched this on (Australian) Netflix- what an incredible film. Wish I'd seen it on the big screen.
posted by Coaticass at 3:45 PM on April 24, 2021


Fascinating story and process, with the cast playing fictionalized versions of themselves. The lead actor said "I train horses and she (the director Chloe Zhao) trains actors." Apparently the horse training is happening in real time!

I was pleased to learn in real life his mother is still alive.
posted by Coaticass at 3:50 PM on April 24, 2021


As described here, if you all would care for an update.
posted by Coaticass at 4:34 PM on April 24, 2021


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