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Reviews
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The reviews below came after screenings of the theatrical version in New York and England.
“What begins as a contrived trip to salve the ego and ease the conscience of a father who has things to feel guilty for becomes something much deeper and more interesting. And over the course of the film I rooted for the father in spite of his obvious flaws-maybe because of his flaws- and I grew to really love his son. The film surprises you, and builds on you, and is, in the end, very effecting. Very moving.”
-Mark Warren, Executive Editor, Esquire Magazine
"I’ve never seen an audience respond like that to a film before.”
“Son Nico just wants Dad Bill to be a mate, having not trusted him for the last eight years. Bill – a schoolteacher who’d never made a film before - persuades Nico to accompany him on a cycle trip from the US West Coast to the East. They load up a Winnebago with spares, food and a crew who shoot over 300 hours of footage, and start a long, wary voyage across the continent, and around each other. Initially threatening mawkish therapy rather than film, it ultimately won its audience completely over with a big emotional pay off of reconciliation and retribution. The packed house gave Bill and Nico a warm three-minute ovation – the longest I heard in Sheffield. That was too much for them – this was their Festival debut, after all - and arm in arm they dissolved into tears, taking the young lady I had sat next to with them, which then set me off, and the whole audience. Honestly, I’m meant to be a professional.”
-James Mullighan, Creative Director, Shooting People,
the world’s largest independent film community
DreamRiders was a fantastic experience all round for me. On paper it wouldn’t jump out at me as being my sort of film, I would have assumed that it was some sort of video diary or two self-obsessed characters acting out real life for the cameras in a reality TV format. With DreamRiders this is CERTAINLY not the case. Yes, it requires a certain amount of narcissism to want to put yourself in front of a camera but I don’t think that William had any idea what he was letting himself in for when he came up with the idea of DreamRiders.
Although a documentary, DreamRiders plays out almost like the narrative of a Hollywood drama: A father and son relationship in need of repair set against a road trip across the United States on two bikes. I instantly felt a connection to Nico and anyone who ever had a relationship with his or her father can instantly find common ground in how Nico thinks and feels.
I am sure that would be the case with fathers on being introduced to William as well. Although that is not to say that they are two opposing forces, In fact it is the commonalities between them, the fact that they (just like anyone) are flawed in so many ways and blessed in others that makes you want to see their journey through to the end.
As the film progresses every preconception I had of both William and Nico is broken. I felt I was going to be subjected to an overly keen father trying to make up for past mistakes while still shifting a lot of the blame away from himself and onto his son who had no real want whatsoever to have a real father son relationship. Although this is how the film does start out, instead a relationship (slowly) grows between them, and not the one that was perhaps intended in the first place. There are no forced father son moments that make you want to be sick on your own lap, just genuine emotions running pretty wild throughout the film. Seeing the growth of William throughout from making cringe-worthy situations between him and his son to full comprehending the mistakes he has made and knowing how to best rectify them is a wonderful thing to see captured on film and at no point is the presence of cameras in anyway a hindrance to the story that is unfolding. In fact, I got a sense that without the camera for both William and Nico to individually express their upset and anger for each other they may never have learned how each of them felt towards each other.
This film was able to touch me on a personal level that very few films are able to do. It doesn’t push or shove for an emotional response, which allowed me to sit back and absorb it. It’s a very genuine self-authored piece that uses a small close study between a father and son cycling across America to represent a much bigger meaning, that of relationships and the long-term emotional turmoil that can develop within them. If anyone has ever sustained a long-term relationship of any sort then there is something in this film that will relate to him or her.
-Steven Lake
UK film producer
