Vu sur ARTE, Cannes à la maison 2021 (Best film, Director's Fortnight, Cannes 2017)
Good-looking and -sounding film that hardly tells anything beyond what looks like a semi-true "Giving up one's dream" story for a character entirely defined by his "dream" profession and marred by so many tragic events. Yet it's enough (although 20-40mn less would have helped not to simmer too much at times).
Using non-actors can be both beneficial and negative for a film, The Rider shows it well: for example, maybe the film seems more "honest" because of it, but it was sometimes "annoyingly" badly played.
At times bordering on the grating post-2000s independant US drama style.
Score: 7/10
Enjoyment: 3/5
Probably the best it could be considering how it was made, but one could have expected a bit more (polish at least).
Following I, Daniel Blake, it certainly makes for a "quasi-documentary" evening. It surprisingly helped to appreciate this film.