An indie gem, streaming for your VOD pleasure.
Bull
Grade: A-
Director: Annie Silverstein
Screenplay: Silverstein, Johnny McAllister (Booger Red)
Cast: Rob Morgan (The Photograph), Amber Havard
Runtime: 1h 45m
By: John DeSando
“Relationships are kind of like riding a bull. You hang on for dear life and sometimes you get a little buck here and there but you get back on.” Katy Perry
With all the buzz about realty, it’s a joy to see real “reality” in a heartening independent film about rural rodeo and rural poverty in Texas without feeling the least bit cheated that you wasted your streaming cash or that you didn’t get a full measure of the toughness of riding bulls and the challenge of surviving outside the fences. As if riding a bull were not the most dangerous game in town! Surviving life is.
Fifteen-year old Kris (Amber Havard—a newbie with loads of understated talent) is a sweetheart of a daughter, whose mom is in prison. She’s quiet but wanting to learn, especially from 40-something wrangler-neighbor Abe (Rob Morgan), a seasoned Black cowboy who saves riders from bulls in the ring after the cowboys fall: “How do you know when a rider’s about to fall off,” asks Kris. “When his head hits the ground,” responds Abe. Now that’s reality.
Although the speeches are short and the action except for the bulls is minimal, a casual feeling pervades of experiencing another kind of world, i.e., poverty and the rodeo, as well as a worthy teen making some bad decisions but riding toward good ones. That she may someday ride a bull or bucking bronco may be inevitable—she’s that smart, determined, and able.
Meanwhile enjoy being with her in her low-key world, where even poverty can’t put a good girl down. It’s a world writer-director Annie Silverstein and writer-husband Johnny McAllister give us in quiet, honest tones (the sound track’s country tunes are perfect). Immersing us in other worlds is what movies do. These days streaming VOD like this is a gift and a virus-balm for us extraverts and for exploring introverts.
Reality check: After being caught early on with friends invading Abe’s home, Kris implores the cops: “Can’t you just take me to juvie?”
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com.
