Ride Like a Girl is based on the true story of Australian jockey Michelle Payne being the first woman to win a Melbourne Cup. It’s bloody delightful!
I knew just a little of the Michelle Payne Melbourne Cup Fairytale (TM) before I saw this so it was great to learn more about just how hard she worked, how many barriers she broke down and how many setbacks she overcame to achieve such an incredible feat.
Payne is played by Teresa Palmer, her father Paddy by Sam Neill and her brother Stevie is played by Stevie himself which is pretty cool - they are all fantastic and bring the story to life. Accomplished actors Magda Szubanski and Sullivan Stapleton have smaller roles and are also both very good of course but I’m saving a special shout out for Genevieve Morris who I think is a really underrated Australian actress. You might not know the name but I bet you know her face - she’s been in loads of Aussie TV shows and some iconic ads.
After the premiere I saw Australian actor, producer and radio host Jane Kennedy say something along the lines of “don’t let the PC reviews put you off” in a tweet praising this film which filled me with dread to be honest. There is an obvious point to which you can object - I know many people think horse racing is cruel. If you fall into that category, of course don’t see this one. If you can live with it then I reckon you’ll love Ride Like a Girl. I laughed and cried! For what it’s worth, Jane deleted the tweet and replaced it with something like “support Australian films”.
The one thing I would say by way of caution is that for much of the film I was thinking it would be a great one for my nieces to see (aged between 12 and 18) because I think they’d like it and be inspired by it. However when Michelle started eating only one orange in a day and wrapping herself in cling wrap and sitting in her car with the heater on to get herself down to 50 kilograms to achieve her dream I thought better of that. I’m all in favour of working hard to achieve your goals but that’s not something I want them to see and idolise. Based on that - even though it’s rated PG - this one is for grown-ups who can be objective, I reckon.
Ride Like a Girl opens Thursday 26 September and runs for 96 minutes (YES! I hate long movies!). Trailer here.