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Rating: Director Andrew Haigh, after "Weekend" (2011) and "45 Years" (2015), returns to the big screen with the road movie "Lean on Pete." This new film, based on the novel "The Ballad of Charley Thompson" by Willy Vlautin, was premiered at the Venice Film Festival, earning the protagonist Charlie Plummer the Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor.
Charlie is 15 years old.
Charlie runs, he plays American football at school.
Charlie is a good boy, maybe a bit quiet but he's serious, he's capable for being so young, he's not a fool like his peers, he's mature.
Charlie lives with his father, a big kid, a temp worker more interested in beer and women than in serious stuff but he loves him.
The mother is not there, she left when he was a newborn your mother was too flighty, she always wanted to party.
Charlie runs, runs in the neighborhood, and at some point, he sees a stable. The horses. The racing horses.
He offers himself as a helper, to bring some money home.
He is hired by Del, a great Steve Buscemi.
Del has few horses, he has 6 now, once he had 20, he's not doing well either now.
It ends up that Charlie gets attached to a horse called Pete.
I won’t tell you more.
Lean on Pete is a beautiful film.
The first part is exceptional. The father-son relationship, painted in a breakfast and two sparse dialogues, is all there.
The horse racing world, behind the scenes, the hard life, on the road. Sleep in the van, shovel the crap, take care of the horses, eat a hamburger.
Then there's the race, they are quarter horses, mini-races of 350 meters. Sometimes 180, don't blink or you'll miss the race.
In the second part, Charlie's journey begins, I won't tell you with whom he travels, why, and with whom, but if you go online you'll know, but better not... right? Not my problem.
Splendid film, masterful photography, soundtrack with those beautiful, sweet, and melancholic American tracks. Direct dialogues, no bullshit, no catchy phrases.
As the film progresses, things turn bad for this boy, assuming rather strong dramatic tones but Charlie is strong, he endures and pushes forward.
And what are you crying about, life is like that, for some, it goes well, for others it goes bad, there’s nothing you can do about it, and there's no use saying it’s fair / not fair.
Someone says karma, what you've done comes back to you. But screw that.
Hang in there Charlie, you're just a boy, you have your whole life ahead of you.
I saw it in preview in the original version, it's coming out soon.
Do yourself a favor, go to the cinema.
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