Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for The Rider (2018) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau, Cat Clifford, Terri Dawn Pourier, Lane Scott DIRECTOR: Chloé Zhao CINEMATOGRAPHY: Joshua James Richards MUSIC: Nathan Halpern PRODUCTION: Highwayman Films, Altitude Film Entertainment, Caviar

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for The Rider (2018). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

Zhao first met horse trainer Brady Jandreau in July 2014 during a return visit to the Pine Ridge Reservation where Zhao had shot her first film, Songs My Brother Taught Me. Zhao said, “Right away, I called [Richards] and said, 'I think I met someone who can carry a movie.' The way he trains horses was what convinced me the most. To see him act like a father, like a mother, like a friend, like a dance partner to a wild animal and get that animal to trust him — I figured maybe he could do that for the camera as well.” and shows the scar in his head in multiple scenes. Jandreau's injury and recovery affected the message Zhao wanted the film to convey: "I wished that Brady would see hope in his life after the rodeo, which inspired me to take his character in that direction." Zhao began by writing a treatment, incorporating lines said to her by Jandreau and others in their time together, including the line that made her decide to make the film: "If any animals around here got hurt like I did, they would get put down."

After the struggles she had developing and financing her first film, Zhao decided to "start with nothing and then just do something real cheap. And do it right away because I can't do the development thing anymore." Zhao decided to make the film in August 2016 and started shooting in September. Zhao covered the film's production costs herself, using her and her then boyfriend Joshua James Richards' credit cards. There were only six crew members, including Zhao, and they relied on natural light and Walmart LED strips for lighting (Zhao says she will "shoot every magic hour if I am alive").

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Awards Won: ★ Grand prix du Festival de Deauville (2017 Deauville American Film Festival)

Nominations: ○ IFFR audience award (47th International Film Festival Rotterdam)

CRITICAL RECEPTION

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 191 reviews, and an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Riders hard-hitting drama is only made more effective through writer-director Chloé Zhao's use of untrained actors to tell the movie's fact-based tale." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com gave the film 4 out of 4 stars, writing that its "style, its sense of light and landscape and mood, simultaneously give it the mesmerizing force of the most confident cinematic poetry."

Former United States President Barack Obama listed The Rider among his favorite films of 2018, in his annual list of favorite films.