Ride Like a Girl

What will be concerning to some parents is the film’s long second act dealing with Michelle’s attempts to rapidly and recklessly bring her weight down to 50 kg to ride a particular race. We see Palmer starving herself, push herself physically, and even wrap herself in plastic and go driving in a car with the heat turned up through the night. This is not presented as dangerous but simply as par for the course and when she weighs in at 50kg, a triumph. It’s astonishing that the film goes there with this clearly unhealthy behaviour; TabCorp - the horse racing gambling establishment - and the Victorian Racing Authority were major supporters of the film, so make of that what you will. Needless to say, you don’t see any horses being mistreated, let alone fatally shot on the track; if, inherently, you cannot stomach the horse racing industry, clearly you are not going to want to see this film, which passionately adores the practice. I have put aside my own disagreements with the industry for the sake of this review.