On today’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie, I’m joined by Semi Chellas — an Emmy-nominated, Gemini-winning writer-producer who made her directorial debut last year with the 70s drama American Woman.
And she picked a movie that’s nothing like hers at all — Chloe Zhao’s The Rider, a drama about a young cowboy named Brady trying to rebuild his life after a devastating head injury.
The character is not too different from the actor who plays him — Brady Judreau was injured in exactly the same way as his character, and his fictional father and sister are played by his real ones — but there are other elements to Zhao’s construction that are entirely invented, and the way The Rider navigates that boundary is something Semi found enthralling, though I had a little more trouble with it on first viewing.
We talk about that disconnect, and why it doesn’t necessarily matter, in a conversation I think you’ll enjoy. Come and listen! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or download it directly from the web.
And then go listen to today’s new NOW What, in which Eric Kostiuk Williams tells me about the weekly pandemic comic strip he’s been writing and drawing for the paper … and why he’s stepping back from it for a bit. That’s good too!
Also, since it’s almost July, check out our Netflix and Crave look-aheads, and maybe you’d also like to take a look at the list of ten great recent queer films I wrote for NOW over the weekend.
I write a lot of lists.