The Rider (*****)

THE RIDER is like some kind of poem. It's a beautiful ode to the often-forgotten about side of America. It's also as moving of a story as I can remember seeing in a while. While I didn't review it when I first saw it several months back, this is a movie that has been impossible to shake. I doubt there will be few films as powerful for the rest of the year.

Director Chloe Zhao is a Chinese-born filmmaker who only moved to America during her high school years. It's a stunning portrayal of the cowboy life, and her work is key to this film's ultimate power. The story follows Brady (Brady Jandreau) who is in recovery from a nasty accident following some bull riding. We learn he was quite a good rider, but a fall leaves him with a deep gash in his head and a persistent bout of seizures. He is told never to ride again. The story picks up in this lull - in which we learn more about Brady and his family (a sister with autism and a father who would rather his son not ride anymore). Rodeoing is a dangerous sport, and it's clear that Brady can not keep it up forever.

Brady is contrasted with his friend and mentor Lane. Lane isn't much older than Brady, but met disastrous results after a similar fall off a bull. He lives in a rehabilitation facility, wheelchair bound and barely able to speak. He communicates through rudimentary signs and moans. Perhaps Brady looks to Lane and sees what his future might become. But looking back at his accomplishments, I don't think Brady sees this life as having been wasted.

I found a lot of similarities to Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," another story about lost dreams and a hero who returns to the ring again and again despite the immediate risk of harm. Where Mickey Rourke ultimately finds no purpose outside the ring, Brady is lucky to have friends, to have talent, and to still be alive. To make up for odd jobs, he works alongside horse wranglers to help tame wild steeds. Zhao films these scenes mostly in single shots, and only after the film did I learn that the actor himself is quite skilled. It's remarkable to watch a skinny, slight boy work such wonders on an animal so big and wild. These moments, coupled with some of the most beautiful tracking shots of horseback riding I have ever seen, help elevate the movie to something more profound.

And to continue on with Brady Blackburn, the actor... His father and sister star alongside in what I assume is their feature film debuts. Their chemistry is palpable and so much at the root of what makes this story so emotional. Where Brady is on screen in nearly every scene, never once do I get a sense that this is a man who is trying to act something that he is not. I don't want to use this film to praise another, but there is a closed-off sensibility to Brady that I recognized from Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain." It's credit to Ledger, who managed to capture the deeper nature of a cowboy, and also credit to Blackburn, the actor who lives this life but still manages to bring a fully dramatic part to the role.

This film is so great in the quiet moments, like when Brady is breaking in these wild horses, or when he helps Lane relive the glory years on a makeshift horse. I expected this film to take a dark turn, and in fact up until the finale I was expecting something that would break my heart. It did, but for different reasons. Brady ultimately becomes this hero not because he pursues his dreams, but also realizes when to give up on those that are lost. Where Lane was a hero to him, so does he become this icon to a younger group of boys who want nothing more than to escape the poverty of their lives. Whether or not the rodeo is the best way to fulfill those desires isn't the point. For at least a couple seconds, it gives them something to hold on to.