Lean on Pete

Charley Thompson is a fifteen-year-old boy who has grown used to fending for himself, with a single father who drifts in and out of his life. After moving to Portland, Oregon, Charley finds summer work at a racetrack, where he cares for an aging racehorse named Lean on Pete under the gruff trainer Del Montgomery. When he learns the horse is to be sent away rather than kept, Charley takes him and sets off across the American West in search of an aunt he barely remembers, hoping to find something like a home.

Andrew Haigh wrote and directed the film, his fifth feature, following Weekend, 45 Years and Looking: The Movie. Charlie Plummer plays Charley, with Steve Buscemi as Del, Travis Fimmel as Ray and Amy Seimetz as Lynn. The production, backed by Film4 and The Bureau, was made for around eight million dollars.

Released in April 2018, the film is a British production with a runtime of just over two hours. It drew a critics' rating of 7.9 out of 10 from 189 reviews, while audiences have rated it 7.1 on IMDb from roughly fifteen thousand votes and 6.9 on TMDB. Its worldwide box office of about two million dollars was modest against its budget.