Ride Like a Girl (2019)

Ride Like a Girl is the kind of true-life drama that doesn’t just tell you to believe in yourself—it makes you feel the bruises, the doubt, and the stubborn hope that get you to the starting gate. Teresa Palmer brings a fierce, lived-in determination to Michelle Payne, while Sam Neill adds warmth and steadiness, grounding the film in family, loyalty, and hard-earned resilience. The vibe is rousing and big-hearted, with race sequences that crackle with tension and exhilaration without turning the story into a glossy fairy tale. If you’re allergic to earnest, feel-good sports dramas, it may play a little straight for your taste—but if you want a heartwarming, triumphant watch that leaves you lighter than it found you, this one earns its cheers.

Ride Like a Girl is clearly aiming to be an uplifting underdog biopic about Michelle Payne breaking through a male-dominated sport, and on that basic “dream big, prove them wrong” level it delivers a clean, crowd-pleasing arc. The problem is it often feels like a glossy advertisement for horse racing, skimming past the darker realities of the industry and reducing sexism to a few easy obstacles rather than something truly systemic. Direction and writing can come off a bit TV-movie and occasionally hammy, so if you want a sharp, challenging drama with bite, this may feel superficial and oddly self-congratulatory. If you’re happy with a straightforward inspirational sports story and can overlook what it doesn’t interrogate, you’ll likely find it watchable, even if it’s not especially deep.