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- Families Can Be Messy in Ride
- Veteran Stars, Thanks for Your Service
When a film achieves a certain level of authenticity, it doesn't ultimately matter if the subject is foreign territory to the viewer. Maybe you grew up around bull riders, or maybe your only experience is riding a mechanical bull at that one bar in Hollywood (Saddle Ranch, anyone?) that offers one.
Ride, in actor Jake Allyn's directorial debut, offers authenticity to the max as it brings us down south and explores a tough industry that may or may eat its young, as they say. From a layered and heartfelt script he wrote with co-star Josh Plasse, Allyn (No Man's Land) achieves true stardom here in a genuinely impactful drama that delves deep into universal issues such as addiction, losing health battles, messy families, and more. It's a can't-miss for folks in the Lone Star State and really anyone looking for motivation to reconnect with their roots.
Families Can Be Messy in Ride
Ride (2024)
3.5/5
- Release Date
- June 14, 2024
- Jake Allyn shows promise as a multifaceted artist.
- Ride has universal themes that don't shy away from harsh truths.
- The film features reliably solid performances from veteran actors.
- There are predictable story beats as the plot progresses.
- The film has a divisive ending due to the tidiness of it.
In our recent interview with Allyn, he described how Plasse first conceived the idea as a sort of "Breaking Bad in Texas." Then, it just evolved from there, with the rodeo scene playing a more integral part. It's truly enlightening to see what bull riders endure behind the scenes, and Ride brings us right up close to one of them, a young guy named Peter (Allyn), who was just released from prison.
We're down in rural Texas, where his aging dad John (C. Thomas Howell) resides with wife Monica (Annabeth Gish, The Fall of the House of Usher), who also happens to run this town as the local sheriff. That'll prove tricky for ex-con Peter later, especially when he gets in deep with some drug dealers around town...
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Yes, Peter's prison sentence stems from substance abuse, which may or may not have almost killed his young sister in a drunk driving accident years earlier. Now, she's bedridden for an entirely different reason: terminal cancer. John certainly doesn't have the dough to fund an experimental medical procedure that might save her life. Even if his estranged son Peter, a bull riding hotshot, can win $10,000 competing at the local rodeo, that's just not going to cut it.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, leading Peter and his dad into a tricky, bullet-laced scenario or two for the sake of some extra cash – and that's where things get all the more tricky as Sheriff Monica is soon investigating dead bodies and robberies around town. It also doesn't help that Monica's nosy deputy Ross (Scott Reeves) is hell-bent on seeking justice for the mysterious witness who turned up dead after the botched robbery went up in figurative flames. What a mess for this already troubled family.
Veteran Stars, Thanks for Your Service
If it all sounds a bit formulaic and by the numbers, then sure, that's a fair argument. But luckily, you've got Howell leading the pack, a graceful actor who's aged as gracefully decades after co-starring in projects by Francis Ford Coppola (The Outsiders) and Steven Spielberg (E.T.). Then, there's the seasoned pro who plays his own dad in the film, Forrie. J. Smith (Yellowstone), who brings his own level of grit and charm to the family ensemble in Ride.
The two actors are also real-life cowboys, with Smith still active in the lifestyle and Howell once a rodeo star before falling head-first into the Hollywood game. The rest is history, and the two veteran performers are exhibit A when it comes to the aforementioned authenticity that makes this little indie feature that could a rare treat.
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These Western masterpieces lull you into a false sense of what's coming round the next bend, then deliver plot twists to leave you completely shocked.
Otherwise, seeing Peter's ongoing battle with addiction is perhaps the film's other strong point, a close-up look at a budding star who seems to have lost his way in more ways than one pre-incarceration (and afterward, as you'll see). A reason doesn't always exist for why people with an addiction slip into such a debilitating lifestyle, but we ultimately learn that Peter is so quick to return to his old ways after serving his time.
A certain tragic flashback sequence will chill you to the core, especially if you have younger siblings or just a family of your own to protect. Still, it gives clearer insight into how it all started for Allyn's troubled protagonist. The end might wrap things up a little too tidily for your liking, but Ride will go down as a star-making feat for Allyn. Sign us up for his next directorial effort, which may not be too far off. In the meantime, from Well Go USA, Ride is now playing in select theaters and on-demand following its award-winning premiere at the Dallas International Film Festival.
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