PalCinema Review: Kill the Jockey

A sometimes hilarious and messy film from Argentinian director Luis Ortega

July 10, 2025

FILM: KILL THE JOCKEY (EL JOCKEY)

DIRECTED BY: LUIS ORTEGA

STARRING: NAHUEL PEREZ BISCAYART, URSULA CORBERO, ROBERTO CARNAGHI

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

By Dan Pal

The latest film from Argentinian director Luis Ortega is absurd, hilarious, and also a bit messy. It concerns a jockey named Remo who is romantically involved with a female rival (Abril) who is also pregnant with his child. Remo is clearly more interested in her than his horseracing career. During one very funny moment, she gives him a wink at the starting line, which throws him off his game and he falls immediately off his horse. Remo is also being pressured to win by a mob group whose general presence is stone-faced and serious, in contrast with Remo’s complete defiance of them.

The tone of the film varies wildly with many of the earliest scenes featuring some of the most absurd and jaw-dropping moments. Most of this has to do with Remo’s carefree attitude and his propensity for winding up injured in self-inflicted accidents. Then one of those situations occurs and lands him in the hospital where he begins dressing as another patient in his hospital room to avoid his pursuers. This roughly second half of the film gets a bit more serious. There is something very deadpan about Remo that when he begins this new chapter he appears to be The Bride of Frankenstein incarnate. While this accentuates a theme of rebirth it also slows the experience down a bit. There are still some pretty absurd situations but the more comical moments are less present.

The initial tone of the film is not that far off from what we might expect from a Wes Anderson comedy with its colorful cast of characters and it’s mix of carefully controlled and designed sets along with some very creative uses of the camera. One of these features Remo going around and around a revolving door, which feels random but is visually very entertaining. It also reflects the spiral of Remo’s life at this moment in time.

Some of the best moments occur during sudden dance sequences when Remo and others begin some pretty impressive moves to some of the best techno music on film since Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run. The uproarious and high energy dancing simply have to be seen to be believed. I wish the film contained more of this.

There’s also something interesting if confusing about some of the gender-bending and sexual identity shifts throughout the film. Most likely this reflects a larger theme of finding one’s true self that is most representative of Remo and his desire to be someone other than whom others perceive him to be.

The whole film is pretty bizarre from start to finish and, at least at the screening where I saw it, resulted in many gasps from the audience. I tend to enjoy such alternative approaches to traditional narrative storytelling on screen. I wanted this one to be a bit more coherent and consistent though.

Kill the Jockey (El Jockey) opens in select theaters tomorrow, including the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.

What do you think? Does this sound like a film you’d like?

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