Rodeo (Quivoron, 2022)
Rodeo is presented with an anthropological curiosity and an artistic attention to detail that almost get the film across the finish line. The attempts to embed the examination of gearheads and trick riders into a narrative that might drive it forward are less successful, though, causing the film to sputter rather than throttle its way to the end.
Attempts to engage the audience are not helped by choosing to make Julia (Julie Ledru) the main character. Julia steals motorbikes from E-bay posters, and while the press notes try to position this as her taking advantage of men who don’t believe she could be knowledgeable about bikes, the pattern of behavior I see has little to do with misogyny or patriarchy. You have it, I want it. Does sexual inequality exist within the community? Sure. But it’s not really presented in a way that Julia’s actions are a response to it. When she runs into the gang of trick riders and chop-shop runners, she treats them with the same air of entitlement she treats her marks. One even calls her on it the first time she demands (rather than asks for) gas. I’m not arguing that any of this is not credible, but the lack of a single likable character is a big hurdle for any film to get over.
Julia observes the baby mama of the chop shop owner and there are smallish subplots about her gradual connection to the other woman and the couple’s son. There is also the bare bones of a heist plan that moves us to that last act, but it is hard to see any dramatic stakes in the plan’s success or failure.
Only in a few brief scenes where we see some of the bike tricks performed or discussed does the film shake off its sluggish lethargy and offer a tone other than sullen. These are too little to carry us past the weak plot, though. There are plenty of films that depict a criminal underclass and yet manage to engage the viewer and prompt some sort of empathy. Rodeo is not one of them. It is too one-note, too committed to being gritty to be anything. Consequently, when the film ends, and I asked myself what I felt about Julie’s final fate, I could muster little more than a shrug. The outcome feels more pessimistically inevitable than tragic or dramatic.
It’s an interesting setting for a film, but good movies need more than just a situation.
