‘Rodeo’ Review: Stealing and Popping Wheelies in a Life-Is-Doom Existential French Motocross Flick
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic“Rodeo” might have had a clearer (and catchier) title if it had been called “Wheelie.” It’s a drama set among French motocross riders, who are a bit like the outlaw bikers of the ’60s except that they wear cropped hair and athletic logo T-shirts instead of hippie manes and satanic leather jackets.
And in this movie, at least, they don’t rove. They’re rooted in a desolate suburb of Paris, where they gather to zoom along the road and pop up on one wheel, which the movie describes to us as a feeling of intense liberation.
It sure looks that way.But it’s only in fits and starts, mostly during the first 20 minutes, that “Rodeo” gets off on those stunts.
Julia (Julie Ledru), the feral but untrained biker who joins the gravity-tweaking competitors, is the only female on hand, and she never does learn how to pop a wheelie; she achieves her freedom through stealing.
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