Charley Thompson, a teenager living with his single father, gets a summer job working for horse trainer Del Montgomery. Bonding with an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is horrified to learn he is bound for slaughter, and so he steals the horse, and the duo embark on an odyssey across the new American frontier.
<%%item_is_not_adult%%
Credits: TheMovieDb.
Film Cast:
- Charley Thompson: Charlie Plummer
- Silver: Steve Zahn
- Del Montgomery: Steve Buscemi
- Bonnie: Chloë Sevigny
- Ray Thompson: Travis Fimmel
- Lynn: Amy Seimetz
- Santiago: Frank Gallegos
- Dallas: Lewis Pullman
- Mike: Justin Rain
- Mr. Kendall: Bob Olin
- Ruby: Julia Prud’homme
- Aunt Margy: Alison Elliott
- Track Announcer: Jason Beem
- Lynn’s Husband: Tolo Tuitele
- Cop #1: Ayanna Berkshire
- Cop #2: Connor Brenes
- Nurse: Kurt Conroyd
- Old Timer: Dennis Fitzpatrick
- Portland Downs Security Guard: Rusty Tennant
- Mitch: Jason Rouse
- Laurie: Teyah Hartley
- Driver: Dana Millican
- Desert Officer: Heath Lourwood
- Martha: Rachael Perrell Fosket
- Warehouse Manager: Joseph Bertót
- Bob: Francisco Diego Garcia
- Race Spectator (uncredited): Chris Ihlenfeldt
- Race Spectator (uncredited): P.E. Ingraham
- Race Track Patron (uncredited): Kyle Stoltz
Film Crew:
- Foley Mixer: Patrick Ghislain
- Second Assistant Director: Ime Etuk
- Still Photographer: Scott Patrick Green
- Key Makeup Artist: Crystal Shade
- Key Makeup Artist: Eva Lohse
- Casting: Carmen Cuba
- Executive Producer: Lizzie Francke
- Executive Producer: Sam Lavender
- Production Design: Ryan Warren Smith
- Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Per Boström
- Director: Andrew Haigh
- Costume Design: Julie Carnahan
- Set Decoration: Jenelle Giordano
- Sound Effects Editor: Christer Melén
- Foley Artist: Julien Naudin
- Unit Production Manager: Darren M. Demetre
- Director of Photography: Magnus Nordenhof Jønck
- Novel: Willy Vlautin
- Costume Supervisor: Angelique Paull
- Supervising Sound Editor: Joakim Sundström
- Visual Effects: Sally Goldberg
- Makeup Department Head: Christina Kortum
- Production Sound Mixer: Christian Dolan
- Dialogue Editor: Matthew Skelding
- Scenic Artist: Ellen Lepinski
- Post Production Supervisor: Gerardine O’Flynn
- ADR Mixer: Chris Navarro
- Executive Producer: David Kosse
- Editor: Jonathan Alberts
- Producer: Tristan Goligher
- Storyboard Artist: Dan Schaefer
- Dialect Coach: Mary McDonald-Lewis
- Camera Operator: Nils Benson
- Production Supervisor: Dawnn Pavlonnis
- Music Supervisor: Connie Farr
- Steadicam Operator: Noah Dille
- Graphic Designer: Carly Sertic
- Casting Associate: Rachel Mossey
- Script Supervisor: Janet Beeson
- Executive Producer: Vincent Gadelle
- Executive Producer: Daniel Battsek
- Stunt Coordinator: Kent W. Luttrell
- Digital Intermediate Producer: Charlotte Llewelyn
- Leadman: Chandler Vinar
- Boom Operator: Creed Spencer
- Production Coordinator: Jennifer Bertram
- First Assistant Director: Antonio Graña
- Property Master: Drew Pinniger
- Colorist: John Claude
- Dolly Grip: William Clouter
- Executive Producer: Ben Roberts
- Visual Effects: Ben McIlveen
- Location Manager: Don Baldwin
- Hair Department Head: Autumn Sanders
- Original Music Composer: James Edward Baker
- Art Direction: Jonny Fenix
- Key Hair Stylist: Dusti Leon
- Visual Effects: Miguel Algora
- Visual Effects: Nicholas Bennett
- Senior Visual Effects Supervisor: Jonathan Rawlinson
- Construction Coordinator: Jarred Decker
- Second Assistant Camera: Michael Crockett
- Assistant Editor: Marina Morales Moya
- First Assistant “A” Camera: David Parson
- Associate Producer: Aimee Lynn Barneburg
- Second Second Assistant Director: Kathleen Campbell
- Carpenter: Cody Boat
- Assistant Property Master: Greg Brown
- Art Department Coordinator: Patricia Ibanez
- Best Boy Electric: Jason Campbell
- Gaffer: Jake Lyon
- Second Assistant “A” Camera: Peter Parson
- Key Grip: Oliver Schaal
- Extras Casting: Jen Tam
- First Assistant Editor: Matt Hornick
- Set Medic: Kenneth Lewis
Movie Reviews:
- Stephen Campbell: **_Decent enough, but not a patch on Haigh’s previous work_**
> _I feel everything I do is related to that sense of loneliness and that longing to not be alone. I think all of us spend most of our time feeling alone and we find ways to disguise our loneliness – whether it’s relationships, a job or whatever it is – because we know that our central state of being is probably to feel alone. For this story that’s especially true: Charley spends a lot of time running away, he leaves the frame and disappears. I think we’re constantly battling with loneliness, finding things that make us feel bet__ter, striving for things that we think are going to make us happy and then when they fail to do so, striving for the next thing to try and repeating the process over and over. It’s just our basic biological need that keeps us going._
– Andrew Haigh; “_Lean On Pete_: In Conversation With Filmmaker Andrew Haigh”; _Candid_ (May 5, 2018)
15-year-old Charley Thompson (Charlie Plummer) lives with his father, Ray (Travis Fimmel), who is drinking himself into an early grave. Finding work caring for an ageing racehorse named Lean on Pete, Charley is devastated when he learns that Pete’s owner, Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi), is planning to slaughter the animal. Determined to save his friend, Charley steals Pete, and the two set out on an odyssey across the modern American frontier.
Fans of writer/director Andrew Haigh will know his unassailable talent for what one might label unsentimental emotionalism; his films deal with intensely emotional situations without lapsing into Speilbergian fawnishness. And, although compared to the excellent _Weekend_ (2011), and the masterful _45 Years_ (2015), _Lean on Pete_ is a touch melodramatic, Haigh’s talent for allowing character and theme to rise organically to the surface through quiet moments of introspection is still very much to the fore. So why not a higher score? Adapted from Willy Vlautin’s 2010 novel of the same name, the biggest problem with the film is that things are laid on too thick; Charley is very much a Job figure, and suffers such a litany of misfortunes that one fully expects him to be diagnosed with terminal cancer. Similarly, the pseudo-allegorical nature of the characters he encounters is too on-the-nose for the realistic _milieu_ Haigh has crafted. Part state-of-the-nation address, part _bildungsroman_, it’s worth a look, but is ultimately lacking a satisfying thematic through-line.