Jockey: Well-crafted horse-racing drama drips with authenticity

Few films have had quite so much to do with the rising and falling of the sun. It feels as if 80 per cent of Clint Bentley's rugged horse-racing drama takes place at dawn or in the crepuscular hours. This lends the film an attractive light. More importantly, it presses home what an unforgiving life the working jockey leads. If the horrible hours don't make the point clearly enough, then Clifton Collins Jr's excellent performance should do the trick.

Now in his 40s (at least), Jackson Silva, jockey at a stable in Arizona, monitors his heart with a concerned look, cadges health advice from the vet, and seems unsure how many times he has broken his back. ("Three, I guess?") When we glance down the faces preparing to surge from the starting gate, we see at least one older competitor rendered entirely toothless. Few sports have such a high casualty rate as those that also involve horses.

Bentley, whose father and grandfather rode, has done an exemplary job in recreating that world. Apparently working with a limited budget, he shows little of the hustle-bustle of race day, but his tightly framed images capture faces creased by ill-use.

Approaching the end of his career, Silva enjoys a warm – though not romantic – relationship with his trainer, Ruth (Molly Parker). They get stoned together. They share jokes. They are always up before the sun to exercise their charges. Those performances are all first-rate. The characters are strongly drawn. The summoning up of rural Arizona bears favourable comparison to Chloé Zhao’s best work.

Jockey does, however, suffer from a plot that could hardly be more predictable if it were derived from Greek tragedy. A young man (Moisés Arias), also an aspiring rider, claiming to be Jackson’s son, arrives at the same time as Ruth acquires the horse of her dreams. The beast is not only supernaturally fast, but he seems to have a natural aptitude for the nuances of racing. But has Jackson still got the strength to ride him?

The inevitability of the destination does little to damage a well-crafted drama dripping with authenticity. Technical jargon falls believably from lips that look as if they’ve smacked into turf more often than any sane human would desire. We again learn that renown is no guarantee of comfort when the bones begin to creak. A worthwhile debut.

Opens on February 4th