"Rodeo" - Film Review
Rodeo begins with a fury of pushing and shoving. Someone steals Julia’s (Julie Ledru) motorbike, what she calls the most important thing in her life, in the middle of the night. She often says she was born with a motorbike between her legs and wears a piston on a chain around her neck like a cross. When the audience sees Julia on a bike for the first time, her love is undeniable. When she’s riding, it’s like nothing in the world can touch her. As she inserts herself further and further into this aggressive, male-dominated world, her life becomes more dangerous. Beyond her love of motorbikes are the ever-looming threat of her mother, a need for money, and a deep desire for acceptance.
Even though Rodeo is fast and furious, it’s strikingly intimate. Director Lola Quivoron’s camera lingers closely on Julia’s features. Her eyes, her lips, her fingers. This is Quivoron’s attempt to allow the audience to really know the girl who calls herself Unknown. Can we understand someone who seemingly doesn’t want to be understood? Does she completely know who she is, yet cannot bear the thought of being known by someone else? It’s more complicated than that, as any questions about identity prove to be. Julia seems to exist solely for herself. She doesn’t conform to societal norms and feels uncomfortable subscribing to the expectations of being a stereotypical woman. Yet, as independent as she is, Julia has an extreme sense of loyalty that is rarely returned because the men in the motorbike world simply don’t respect her.
courtesy of music box films
Within this film about identity, motorbikes, and community is a solid heist flick. As Julia grows more involved in the underground motorbike world, she becomes essential to a group of riders who resell bikes. Julia poses as an interested buyer, asks for a test ride, and then zooms away. That’s small potatoes to the massive heist she wants to pull off. It’s one thing to expertly capture the struggle of discovering an identity, but it’s another thing entirely to give the audience an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist within this introspective story. Magically, it all feels seamless, despite the fact that this is a debut feature for Quivoron and the case consists mainly of non-actors. Rodeo falls into the trap of one-too-many shaky close-ups, but the end result allows the audience to forgive these small shortcomings. It’s rare to see a main character like Julia and a community like this on the big screen.
Rodeo is gnarled, burning passion. It’s an angry, desperate, hope for a better life and a desire to fit in somewhere, anywhere. It feels reminiscent of Titane, but maybe that’s only because it’s another recent French film that confronts the ideas of femininity, queerness, and gender through a high-octane, titanium lens. Rodeo marks the arrival of a fascinating new director and speaks to the ability of a film with a niche subject matter to transcend its confines.
Rodeo is now available on VOD, DVD, and Blu-Ray:
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