Chloé Zhao’s ‘The Rider’ is an Introspective Hidden Gem

Filmmaker Chloe Zhao has been making headlines all over the internet for more than just her record-breaking award wins. Hidden beneath her latest release is another meditative look at humanity. Karen Cheng breaks down the 2017 indie drama, The Rider.

If you’re even remotely interested in the world of film, you’ve probably heard of Chloé Zhao and her latest release, Nomadland, by now. From being the first Asian woman to take home the Golden Globe for Best Director, to the film’s controversial release censorship in China, the Beijing-born filmmaker has been making headlines for more reasons than one. Her direction of Frances McDormand’s quietly cathartic performance as a chosen nomad has earned otherwise widespread acclaim. But if you dig just a little further into Zhao’s body of work, you’ll find a similarly human story in her 2017 release, The Rider.

About “60% based on my true story, 40% pure fiction,” Brady Jandreau plays a fictionalised version of himself, Brady ‘Blackburn,’ a former rodeo rider who lives and breathes all things horses, but has been sentenced to a life off the saddle after a riding accident and resulting brain trauma.

You might be immediately put off by the sound of rodeo cowboys in an obscure indie western. But the film is arguably more of a docu-drama, which captures the raw human spirit. It embarks on an examination of what it means to grapple with immense loss, not only of a physical loved one, but of the very thing you’ve set on dedicating your life to. For Brady that just happened to be rodeo riding.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating things about the movie is that it features almost an entire cast of non-actors. From the Lakota Sioux people, that’s Jandreau’s real-life father, sister and best friend, with the latter two as natural standouts. This is a testament to the immense amount of trust from both sides of the lens. Zhao developed a friendship with Jandreau over multiple visits to the South Dakota Badlands after shooting her first movie there. She wrote a mere 65-page script, allowing for lots of room to simply start rolling and worry about piecing together the story in edits later. The result? An artfully understated performance from Jandreau which will leave you wondering how this could possibly be his first on-screen role.

Brady’s true passion is undeniable – horses and horses only. No threat of further injury can keep him away. When the two are on screen, the camera isn’t there; the only thing that matters is forming a genuine bond with the animal. Zhao opted to include Jandreau’s real horses-in-training, and it shows. Just a couple of seconds is enough to witness the intrinsic link between the two, conveying just how difficult it must be for him to walk away from the sport.

It would be a crime not to mention the stunning cinematography by Joshua James Richards, the same talent behind God’s Own Country. Richards proves that it’s possible to shoot digitally for lower budget movies but still achieve results that rival traditional film. Gorgeous golden hour sunsets, lingering closeups and silhouetted wide shots against the fading mountain skyline render Brady’s ties to Pine Ridge Reservation as intrinsic.

The significance of this region as one of America’s poorest does not go completely unaddressed. Brady takes up a supermarket job to help pay the bills. Money is the catalyst of constant underlying family tensions. Ultimately this is only a tiny sliver of the true extent of devastating poverty the reservation faces. The Rider’s focuses on telling Brady’s story of personal growth.

Zhao is undoubtedly on a career high. As if Oscars Best Picture talk isn’t enough buzz, her 2021 is only going to get even bigger with the release of her next directorial feat, Marvel’s Eternals. As a far stretch from the likes of The Rider, it’s hard to imagine how her lowkey indie flair is going to fit into the enormity of comic-book blockbusters. But if Marvel has proved anything, it’s that a certain type of magic comes with combining talented, niche directors and superheroes.

While you wait, The Rider is available to stream on Netflix now, so there’s no excuse not to at least give it a go.