Lean on Pete
Lean on Pete is a 2017 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Andrew Haigh, based on the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin. It stars Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel and Steve Buscemi, and follows a 15-year-old boy who begins to work at a stable and befriends an ailing racehorse. It was screened in the main competition section of the 74th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor or Actress for Plummer. It was released in the United States on 6 April 2018, by A24, before opening in the United Kingdom on 4 May 2018, by Curzon Artificial Eye. It received highly positive critical reviews, with praise going towards its direction, screenplay, cinematography, and Plummer's performance. The National Board of Review named it one of the ten best independent films of 2018. Plot While out on a morning run to a race track, Charley Thompson, a 15-year-old living with his single father Ray in Portland, Oregon, finds casual work caring for an aging racehorse named Lean On Pete. Pete's owner, Del, is an ornery man who assigns all the grunt work of caring for horses to Charley