Film review: Jockey

Cert: 15 | ★★★★✩

Prolific TV and film actor Clifton Collins Jr. (The Blacklist, Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood, Nightmare Alley) won the best actor award at Sundance last year for his performance in this understated debut feature from director Clint Bentley.
Jockey tells the story of an ageing horse-racing champion whose dreams for a final championship win are scuppered by health issues. Moises Arias (Ender’s Game, Monos, The King of Staten Island) and Molly Parker (Deadwood, Pieces of a Woman) also star.
Jackson Silva (Collins) is finding it hard to keep up with the gruelling regime he’s been undergoing in preparation for his next race. Having sustained more injuries than wins of late, the ageing champion is hoping to score one last title for his longtime trainer Ruth (Parker, excellent as ever) who has acquired a horse she believes to be a winner. Meanwhile, the arrival of a young rookie rider (another tour de force from Arias), who claims to be his son, forces Jackson to come to terms with his own past. Feeling that he may not have many wins left in him, Jackson takes the gifted young man under his wing and shows him the ropes.
Director Clint Bentley is no stranger to the world of horse-racing, his father was a jockey. Presenting a world seldom seen replicated so effectively on the big screen before, he has given us a believable and gorgeously executed drama with a strong observational style. He casts real life riders alongside professional actors and delivers a film which feels more authentic than the majority of similarly themed productions.
Unfussy, handsomely acted and well written by Greg Kwedar, Jockey clearly has ambitions beyond its visibly small budget. It is moving and thrilling in equal measure, providing us with a central character who one can’t help but root for, despite his many faults and failures.