2017 Movie
Dir. Andrew Haigh · UK, United Kingdom · English, Slovak
A24 + Steve Buscemi = ?.
In “Lean on Pete,” Buscemi plays a guy called Del Montgomery (of course), who is a racetrack horse owner in Portland, Oregon. He befriends a kid, Charley (Charlie Plummer in an amazing performance), who had been abandoned by his family and is new to Portland.
Together they take care of Montgomery’s only horse, until the kid discovers that the horse is set to be slaughtered. He embarks on an impossible journey across the U.S. to try to save the horse while also looking for his family.
This movie flew under most peoples’ radars. It is truly amazing. If you like “Lean on Pete” you should watch other A24 gems like “Lady Bird” or “The Florida Project.”
Charley Thompson, a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier.
"The story drifts with Charley, in and out of peril, and becomes a doleful picaresque; as his face grows hollow and besmirched, we desperately want him to survive."
— Anthony Lane
"Plummer's performance is remarkably interior, bottled up behind his brimming wide eyes, and Haigh leaves enough space for the emotional weight of all that Charley is forced to process."
— Chloe Lizotte
Venice
1 nom
Nat. Board of Review
1 win
Bilal Zouheir is the founder of A Good Movie to Watch. He is US-based and a member of the Nevada Film Critics Society. He grew up in Morocco, where he learned English from watching movies. Bilal's work with A Good Movie to Watch is focused on offering an alternative to streaming algorithms, which are often used as commercial tools by streaming services.
A very engrossing film. Who doesn’t love Steve Buscemi??