MOVIE - The Rider

R (1:44)

4/13/18 Limited release

Viewed Tuesday, 6/19/18 at The Majestic in Gettysburg
IMBd: 7.7/10

RT Critic:  97  Audience: 81
Critic's Consensus:   The Rider's hard-hitting drama is only made more effective through writer-director Chloé Zhao's use of untrained actors to tell the movie's fact-based tale.

Cag:  6/Awesome  

Directed by Chloe Zhao

Sony Pictures Classics

Brady Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau, 

My comments:  The Rider was an amazing movie, and I didn't fully realize the extent of the meaningfulness of it until the credits rolled.  The actors were all the real people that apparently lived the story playing themselves.  Like a documentary told completely as a story. Incredibly depressing, heartfelt, and even upliftiing in its sadness.  The South Dakota plains.  Thelvies of young people that are raised around horses, raised to ride.  The harshness and reality of spial cord injuries and brain injuries.  The rodeo.  Horses.  I don't even like horses!  But I sure did like this movie.  Here is Roger Ebert's (actually Godfrey Cheshire's)vright-on, excellent review:  https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-rider-2018

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Based on his a true story, THE RIDER stars breakout Brady Jandreau as a once rising star of the rodeo circuit warned that his competition days are over after a tragic riding accident. Back home, Brady finds himself wondering what he has to live for when he can no longer do what gives him a sense of purpose: to ride and compete. In an attempt to regain control of his fate, Brady undertakes a search for new identity and tries to redefine his idea of what it means to be a man in the heartland of America.

MOVIE - Sully

PG-13 (1:36)

Wide release Sept. 9, 2016

Viewed date at ElCon with Sheila on Monday, 9/12/16

RT Critic: 84   Audience:  89
Critic's Consensus:   As comfortingly workmanlike as its protagonist, Sully makes solid use of typically superlative work from its star and director to deliver a quietly stirring tribute to an everyday hero.

Cag: 5.5 - Tribute to an "everyday hero"

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Warner Brothers

Based on a true story

Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney

My comments: No complaints about this movie, that's for sure!  Sheila always gets me to go to these biographical movies that I don't usually want to go to, then I'm SO glad I did.  This was put together brilliantly (though I hate to give credit to Clint Eastwood (bleh) he did an incredible job directing), the way the story was told was brilliant. I realize that the hearings about possible other ways for Sully to more safely land the plane were the only way that there was enough for a full-length movie, but Eastwood and Hanks hit the nail on the head.  This was a wonderful movie, more-than highly recommended.

RT Summary:  On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed the "Miracle on the Hudson" when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger glided his disabled plane onto the frigid waters of the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. However, even as Sully was being heralded by the public and the media for his unprecedented feat of aviation skill, an investigation was unfolding that threatened to destroy his reputation and his career.