Rodéo

Julia (Julie Ledru) is a feral loner who, when we first meet her, demonstrates her predatory nature by conning a hapless seller out of his motorcycle. But when she crashes a local “rodeo”—a high-octane, higher testosterone underground motocross circuit where brash bikers one-up one another—it’s apparent that she’ll need to raise her game all the more. After employing her guile to tenuously insinuate herself in this cut-throat clique, she must deliver something show-stopping if she’s to stick around. As it so happens, she has an idea for an audacious heist. Ledru brings a gunslinger’s bearing to Lola Quivoron’s adrenaline-charged film, which is shot in Western-indebted CinemaScope by Raphaël Vandenbussche. Drawing from childhood memories of illicit motocross competitions in her Paris suburb, Quivoron captures both the exhilaration and peril associated with these machines when their full power is unleashed. (Dir. by Lola Quivoran, 2022, France, in French with English subtitles, 105 mins., Not Rated)

Other festivals: Cannes, BFI London