Lean on Pete is an American drama about a teenage boy Charley (Charlie Plummer) who doesn’t have much in the way of money or family support and gets a job helping out a local horse trainer Del (Steve Buscemi). Buscemi and Plummer both give excellent performances in this film, along with Chloë Sevigny as jockey Bonnie.
I can’t recall another film where I’ve gone from enjoying it so much to not enjoying it so much by the end. It’s about two hours long and around the 70 minute mark I looked at my watch and though ‘Oh god, there’s still nearly an hour to go’ … and it had started so well!
The first half or so is, I think, I really realistic portrayal of the difficult life of a teenager being raised in poverty by a single father and we were starting to see an interesting relationship develop between Charley and Del. It was compelling. They’d lured me in. But then Charley winds up on the run (no spoilers re why/how) and the run was just way too long for me. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was a 100 minute film rather than a 120 minute film but as regular readers know, I’m a firm believer that 90-100 minutes is the sweet spot!
As far as I can tell, proper critics are enjoying the film more than me. Here’s a four-star review from The Guardian and a three-star review in Rolling Stone magazine if you’d like to read more.
Lean On Pete opens in cinemas on 29 November and is rated M. Trailer here.