Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.
Chloé Zhao's The Rider is a quietly devastating semi-documentary drama that blurs fiction and reality by casting real people — Brady Jandreau and his family — playing versions of themselves on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The acting is extraordinary precisely because it isn't conventional acting; Brady's natural, unguarded presence gives the film an authenticity almost impossible to manufacture. Zhao's cinematography is stunning, capturing the vast South Dakota landscape with a painterly eye that elevates every frame. The film is highly novel — its hybrid documentary-fiction approach, its immersion in Lakota cowboy culture, and its meditative pace make it feel utterly singular. The plot is minimal but purposeful, a slow-burn identity crisis told with great restraint; it doesn't break new narrative ground but earns its emotional weight. The ending is understated and bittersweet, consistent with the film's tone but not especially surprising or resonant beyond what came before.