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The Rider poster

Movies that feel likeThe Rider (2018)

Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.

If you loved The Rider, the closest films we have are First Cow (2020), Frozen River (2008) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943). All three share The Rider's gritty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Black Souls (2014).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.4 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Chloé Zhaocontemplativegritty
3 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Kino Film Collection

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If The Rider hit the spot, these will too

First Cow poster
First Cow
2020 · dir. Kelly Reichardt
🍅 95%★ 7.1drama · westernRent or buy

Contemplative where it counts, gritty underneath

In the 1820s, a taciturn loner and skilled cook travels west to Oregon Territory, where he meets a Chinese immigrant also seeking his fortune. Soon the two team up on a dangerous scheme to steal milk from the wealthy landowner’s prized Jersey cow—the first, and only, in the territory.

Frozen River poster
Frozen River
2008 · dir. Courtney Hunt
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · crime

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The difference: Sits closer to crime than The Rider does

A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

The Ox-Bow Incident poster
The Ox-Bow Incident
1943 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 90%★ 8western

Common ground: horseback riding

The difference: Trades the stillness of The Rider for an angle of its own

A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot.

The Fool poster
The Fool
2014 · dir. Yury Bykov
🍅 93%★ 7.9drama

Western with a pulse of grit, in both cases

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

7 Prisoners poster
7 Prisoners
2021 · dir. Alexandre Moratto
🍅 98%★ 7.1drama · crimeNetflix

Contemplative drama in both cases

An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.

Fort Apache poster
Fort Apache
1948 · dir. John Ford
🍅 100%★ 7.4western

Western built on grit, twice over

The difference: Made in the 1940s, in a different era of the craft

Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

A Touch of Sin poster
A Touch of Sin
2013 · dir. Jia Zhangke
🍅 95%★ 7.1crime · drama

Drama of the same temperament

Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.

Black Souls poster
Black Souls
2014 · dir. Francesco Munzi
🍅 89%★ 6.8crime · drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

R poster
R
2010 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 91%★ 7.1crime · drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

Imprisoned for violent assault, Rune is placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations.

3096 Days poster
3096 Days
2013 · dir. Sherry Hormann
★ 6.5drama

Both play drama straight

A young Austrian girl is kidnapped and held in captivity for eight years. Based on the real-life case of Natascha Kampusch.

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay - Away from Keyboard poster
★ 7.4documentary · crimeRent or buy

Contemporaries, and it shows

TPB AFK is a documentary about three computer addicts who redefined the world of media distribution with their hobby homepage The Pirate Bay. How did Tiamo, a beer crazy hardware fanatic, Brokep a tree hugging eco activist and Anakata – a paranoid hacker libertarian – get the White House to threaten the Swedish government with trade sanctions? TPB AFK explores what Hollywood’s most hated pirates go through on a personal level.

My Name Ain't Johnny poster
My Name Ain't Johnny
2008 · dir. Mauro Lima
★ 7.2crime · drama

Both are drama through and through

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella ("Johnny"), a young middle-class bon vivant who became a big-time cocaine dealer in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Rider’s defining feeling.