The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. He follows up a movie about an elderly, married couple at a crossroads with that of a journey film about a runaway teen and a horse. Lean on pete is not overdramatic but it is mature heartbreaking with language and some brief but intense violence.
Lean on Pete has an alt.socialrealist twang. But where his movie departs from that style is in the construction of narrative, and the unexpected way in which the relationship of horse and boy is perhaps not as central and dominant as we might otherwise expect. The meaning and presence of Lean on.
Movies serve so many functions that it's futile to count them: They're entertainment, catharsis, portals to feelings we didn't know we had. In the case of Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete, that's a decision every filmgoer will have to make individually. Set largely in the bleaker corners of the Pacific. It stars Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel and Steve Buscemi. Lean On Pete may be very different in setting and subject matter from its predecessor but it has exactly the same quiet intensity. At times, the movie (adapted from Willy Vlautin's novel) labours under the weight of its own references.
Trailer Lean on Pete
There are echoes here of everything from Charles Bukowski's stories. Andrew Haigh's distancing art-house approach makes it unnecessarily difficult to connect with this otherwise affecting adolescent portrait. Spoiler alert: Lean on Pete does not make it until the end of the movie.
In fact, he dies a ghastly death — one that no person who goes. Boiling Lean on Pete, the new film from Andrew Haigh (Weekend), based on the book of the same name, into a digestible summary can make it sound rather quaint and uplifting. Lean on Pete is an equine take on Ken Loach's Kes, which will give some people a good indication of what to expect. Read the Empire Movie review of Lean On Pete.