Opening in select theaters this weekend is "Hard Miles," a new feature film from Canadian-born, Arkansas-reared director R.J. Daniel Hanna. While the genre is admittedly a narrow one, it's probably the best cycling movie since the 1979 classic "Breaking Away."
It's based on the true story of Greg Townsend, a longtime social worker who deals mostly with juveniles. Townsend takes these disgruntled teenagers and forms them into a functional cycling team able to make the 1,000 mile trip from mountainous terrain of Denver to the picturesque vistas of the Grand Canyon.
Townsend (Matthew Modine, the veteran actor younger audiences are likely to recognize as the evil scientist from Netflix's "Stranger Things") starts the movie off as a hard man, a true believer in tough love, working with problem kids at Ridge View Academy youth center. Despite the pleasant sounding name, River View is home to some hard teens who have been moved from home to home, and who exhibit levels of aggression, anger and defiance. When the youth facility comes under some bureaucratic duress from the state, Townsend is more or less forced to take a group of the youth along with him on his annual vacation bike ride.
Forced to build their own bikes and train together, the adventure gets off to a rocky start and the teens bicker and moan. As they hit the road on this seemingly impossible journey, the crew of spandex-wearing misfits has to deal with scorching heat, the "wobbles," and lots of chafing in their nether regions. At this point the plot opens up from your standard disadvantaged youth drama to first, an intense sports film, and ultimately a character-driven road trip as we discover these kids' hopes, dreams and more importantly their fears for the future as most of them are caught up in a circle of violence.
But older cinephiles will know Modine as the idealistic military journalist in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" or the high school wrestler in "Vision Quest" or maybe even from his recent role in "Oppenhimer." Here he does a great job here walking the tightrope between empathy and toxic masculinity. There are moments in the film, where I would think his character was pushing these kids way too hard, to the point where he might break them. This is a role that could have easily fallen into the tired and clichéd coach caricature, full of hammy pep talks and over the top cheerleading. Modine, though, is able to craft someone who feels human, full of flaws and moments of weakness, and sometimes abject apathy for the boys he's riding with. It's a performance that exudes depth and complexity, as Townsend grows and implements the lessons he's teaching the juveniles and implies them to himself.
This film could have fallen into the schmaltzy "feel-good" genre, but it avoids most of those trappings through the excellent story craftsmanship and directing from Hanna. Born in Canada, Hanna moved to Arkansas when he was 6 years old. He graduated from the University of Arkansas and then went to go get his masters at the University of Southern California. He has spent the bulk of his career as a film editor, which makes sense.
There's a saying in film that a movie gets written three different times; once by the screenwriter, once by the director, and finally by the editor in charge of crafting the narrative out of the images the director captures. So, Hanna has been constantly been crafting stories his entire career. Plus he's also a winner of one of the most prestigious screenwriting competitions, the Academy Nicholl Fellowship.
Hanna was presented Townsend's story back in 2019 by his co-writer Christian Sander. The pair went to the real-life Townsend and asked him if he had any interest in having his life turned into a film. Townsend wasn't too interested at first, but after having a heart-to-heart with his wife, he came around to the idea of having his life's story plastered on the silver screen. Townsend gave the writing duo his permission to "Hollywood up" his life, though the screenwriters have stayed fairly true to his life's story. (As with most bio-pics and based on true stories, there are some embellishment to make the story feel more cinematic.)
Once the actual production began, Hanna said that the most grueling part of the shoot was the biking scenes. The entire cast had to train to prepare themselves physically for their roles. Combine that with shooting in the Arizona desert with temperatures reaching 110 degrees, then you have a very challenging shoot. Hanna noted that there was one day where the winds were so rough bikers couldn't ride in it. Despite how hash mother nature could be, "Hard Miles" has some great-looking biking cinematography. We get to see and feel the struggles of going up and down mountainous terrain from every angle, and it's invigorating and intense.
"Hard Miles" opens this weekend in select cities and can be found playing at theaters in Jonesboro, North Little Rock and Fayetteville.
