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The Derby Stallion

The Derby Stallion

Drama · Family · 2005

An alcoholic former horse-trainer perceives in a fifteen-year-old boy a unique gift of horsemanship and makes it possible for the boy to conceive his dream and pursue it.

Movie details

The Derby Stallion

“The heart of a boy. The soul of a champion. The friendship of a lifetime.”

2005 Drama · Family 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

5.9 / 10

Community rating

An alcoholic former horse-trainer perceives in a fifteen-year-old boy a unique gift of horsemanship and makes it possible for the boy to conceive his dream and pursue it.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Derby Stallion?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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EO

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The world is a mysterious place when seen through the eyes of an animal. EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life’s path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss. But not even for a moment does he lose his innocence.

Northfork

Northfork

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The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.

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Lean on Pete

Lean on Pete

Drama · 2018

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.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Craig Clyde

Written by

Kimberly Gough

Zac Efron

Zac Efron

Patrick McCardle

Bill Cobbs

Bill Cobbs

Houston Jones

William R. Moses

William R. Moses

Jim McCardle

Crystal Hunt

Crystal Hunt

Jill Overton

C

Charles Black

Preacher

Sarah Blackman

Sarah Blackman

Julie Gillette

P

Preston Wigasi Brant

Young Houston

Court is in session

Put The Derby Stallion on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.