RODEO (2022) is a raw, low key, French crime drama about the world of motorcycles. Specifically it’s about one woman, Julia (Julie Ledru, Furies), a.k.a. Unknown, who loves to ride. It just kind of throws us into her life and she’s not big on talking or being vulnerable, so we never really learn much about where she’s coming from other than what can be gleaned by what she’s up to at the moment, or by doing the math from the little details. For example her mom is only mentioned as someone who will call the cops on her if she sees her, her dad only when she lies about him as part of a scam. As she falls into an underworld the movie doesn’t hold our hand explaining what’s going on, but it’s mostly straight forward anyway. They steal motorcycles, fix them up, sell them, ride them.
In the opening Julia’s in an argument with some guys, something about her bike got stolen, they blame her for a door being broken during the burglary, now she needs a ride to work. But it’s not really work like you’d expect. She goes to meet a guy selling a motorcycle, asks him about all the parts and alterations, surprises him with her thorough knowledge, though I think she’s trying to play it down. She talks him into reluctantly allowing her to ride it down the driveway, and we know what she’s up to because earlier she filled her purse (offered as collateral) with dirt and rocks. Still, it feels unnecessary that she flips the guy off as she flees! Isn’t stealing a stranger’s motorcycle enough of a fuck you?
She finds a spot where guys ride together, mostly on bikes, some on four-wheelers, and they do long, deep wheelies like in apparent defiance of gravity. There are other women there, but only on the sidelines, groupies who melt when one of the riders lets them hop on back. They don’t even get the honor of starting a race like all those sex objects in the early FAST & FURIOUSes. But here’s Unknown rolling along in front of the boys, getting in their way. They tell her it’s dangerous, she has a death wish. But there’s one guy, Abra (Dave Nsaman) who tells them to lay off, takes her aside, gives her some encouragement and philosophy about wheelies, how to do them, how to get over the fear. And she practices. Baby steps.
But then there’s a panic over cops coming, and two riders crash, one of them Abra. She helps them up, tries to get them to bring Abra to a hospital, in the hubbub her (stolen) bike gets stolen again. Kaïs (Yannis Lafki) lets her ride with him in a truck but lectures her, tells her never again.
Sadly she was right about Abra – internal bleeding puts him into a coma, then a grave. She just met him, but it fucks her up. Seems like not many people have been nice to her before. She convinces Kaïs to let her sleep at their garage and she dreams of Abra. Pretty soon Kaïs has her talking on his phone to the garage’s owner Domino (Sébastien Schroeder), who okays her to join their crew, the B-Mores. I didn’t understand immediately that he’s calling from prison – a major presence in the movie who we never meet face to face. He has Julia hold up the phone, looks her over, says his wife Ophélie (Antonia Buresi, also co-writer) will have to give her a makeover.
Ophélie is an interesting character because she’s like the den mother to the crew, doesn’t seem to ride, lovingly takes care of everybody, though she’s impatient as an actual mother to little Kylian (Cody Schroeder). Julia is clearly fond of the kid and tries to get in the middle and be nice to him, which doesn’t always go over well with Mom. There’s also some sexual tension between Julia and Ophélie, which makes us nervous based on what little we know about the husband.
At least one of the guys in the B-Mores just loves motorcycles, doesn’t like that they’re stealing them, so maybe to some of the crew it’s more of a sponsorship than a gang. Julia doesn’t mind, though – she’s happy to do any job they want her to, whether it’s buying groceries or going back to the ol’ test ride scam. Whenever she takes off on someone’s bike she looks practically high she’s so happy. The only thing that makes her more fulfilled is when she comes up with her own plan for an ambitious heist and convinces Domino to back her on it. It’s like her big personal project. You feel so proud of her.
It’s a nicely shot movie (cinematographer: Raphaël Vandenbussche, EAT THE NIGHT), with hypnotic music by Kelman Duran (I AM GANGSTER), and it has footage of stuff like this:
It isn’t an action movie, and it’s not heavy on plot, it’s more a slice of life, but it’s an interesting life to get a slice of. And it mostly comes down to how enthralling this tough, mysterious Julia is as we watch her do her thing, whether that means stealing motorcycles (which I disagree with) or trying to get revenge on a dude who jumped her (which I support as long as she gets the right guy). In all these cases – or even on the days when she just does nice legal things like a normal happy person – there’s a pit in my stomach saying it’s gonna have to go horribly wrong at some point, but like I said, she’s tough. She usually figures it out.
Oh man, if they ever decide to make FAST X PART 2 they should just have Julia suddenly be a character in the FAST & FURIOUS world like they did with Han from BETTER LUCK TOMORROW.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ledru is a real biker who writer/director Lola Quivoron discovered on Instagram after “years getting to know an underground community of wheelie-popping motorbike riders north of Paris,” originally for a short called Au Loin, Baltimore. That makes sense, because it’s one of those performances that seems like a completely captivating human being figuring out how to be naturally themselves within a story more than someone learning how to act and play a character. Maybe that’s an illusion, but either way, it’s great casting.
So far this is Quivoron’s only narrative feature, after two shorts and a documentary. I hope we’ll be seeing more.
