The Hollywood Insider – Kill The Jockey
Luis Ortega’s latest blends crime, dark comedy, and dream logic in a visually bold story set on the fringes of Buenos Aires.
Argentinian director Luis Ortega’s ‘Kill the Jockey’, which opened in limited U.S. release on July 2nd, is not just a film; it’s an experience filled with dreamy visuals, unbridled energy of nonstop self-destruction, self-discovery, and relentless gender play. The film begins as a raw, earthy portrait of a burnt-out jockey, but finishes in a far more hypnotic place, much stranger, and ultimately much more gratifying. Ortega’s second feature feels like a fever dream filled with sweat, sequins, and cigarette smoke, where identity can feel like both prison and playground.
Luis Ortega, recognized as one of Argentina’s most courageous cinematic voices, is breaking new ground as a director with ‘Kill the Jockey’, an audacious project that has taken Ortega’s fascination for the human experience to new heights. Ortega first made waves with his 2002 debut ‘Black Box’ and gained international acclaim with ‘El Angel’ (2018). With ‘Kill the Jockey’, Ortega trades the structured contours of biography for something looser, more elusive, an operatic fever dream steeped in genre play and personal mythology. His direction is both meticulous and untethered, guiding the viewer through a labyrinth of drug-fueled decadence, fractured identities, and slippery truths. Ortega’s interest in characters who reject societal expectations in favor of self-definition resonates strongly here, reinforcing his reputation as a filmmaker less concerned with resolution than with capturing the emotional and psychological textures of transformation.
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A Fever Dream of Self-Destruction and Reinvention
At the heart of this chaotic spiral into madness and renewal is the character of Remo Manfredini, played with captivating unpredictability by Nahuel Pérez Biscayart. A once great jockey, Remo now lives in a haze of in-between-ness, tangled in the toxic triad of as much ketamine and liquor, and self-destruction as he can accomplish. He’s not just falling, he’s hurtling through space, untethered from sobriety, responsibility, and even reality. Biscayart’s performance is the soul of the film: twitchy, aching, deadpan, and at times luminous. Remo is a paradox, a bit ghost, a bit firecracker, a man collapsing inwardly while simultaneously blowing outwardly.
During a race, Remo, drugged and barely coherent, spectacularly crashes and lands in a hospital bed with catastrophic injuries. What follows is not a conventional redemption arc but rather a radical metamorphosis. Remo flees the hospital in a stranger’s fur coat, with a bandaged head and a dazed expression. He wanders the streets of Buenos Aires like an urban ghost, or perhaps a newly hatched butterfly. Somewhere along the way, he sheds his name, becomes Dolores (or Lola), and the film itself shifts identities as well.
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Embracing the Slippery Self
Ortega doesn’t offer easy interpretations. ‘Kill the Jockey’ isn’t interested in pinning Remo’s journey to a clear psychological diagnosis or making any grand declarations about gender or identity. Instead, it embraces the slipperiness of the self. The story pulses with the dream logic of a David Lynch film but retains the playfulness of Pedro Almodóvar’s work with its more delirious moments. In fact, there’s more than a little of Almodóvar DNA in Ortega’s work, as El Angel was produced by the Spanish director’s company El Deseo.
Much of ‘Kill the Jockey’ unfolds like a series of hazy, stylized vignettes, dreamlike interludes that blur the line between reality and imagination. One moment, there’s a deliciously surreal dance number draped in bold, op-art racing silks; the next, we’re drifting through languid locker-room scenes, where jockeys flex and stretch like abstract sculptures. Cinematographer Timo Salminen lends the film a painterly texture. His high-contrast lighting and rich color palette transform Remo’s descent into a visually rich fable, one where danger, desire, and absurdity coexist in every frame.
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The Hollywood Insider – Kill The Jockey
Absurdity, Comedy, and Genre Shifting
The film is also laced with dark comedy and absurdist flourishes. Ortega switches gears, subverting genre expectations. One moment, we’re in a gangster thriller, as mob boss Sirena (Daniel Giménez Cacho) tries to manipulate Remo into racing for him again. Next, we’re in a loopy spectacle as Remo stumbles through the city, and Biscayart’s physicality grounds these tonal shifts. Whether dancing with his pregnant partner Abril (Úrsula Corberó), dodging henchmen, or staring blankly into the neon-lit void, his presence is electric.
What makes ‘Kill the Jockey’ feel so singular is how it plays with the idea of escape, not just from danger or debt, but from the self. In one scene, Remo remarks that people ride horses to arrive faster, to wage war, but mostly to escape. It’s a line that encapsulates the film’s philosophy. Every character in Ortega’s surreal Buenos Aires seems to be trying to outrun something: addiction, trauma, gender roles, and expectations. Even the secondary characters, the henchmen, Abril, and Sirena, wrestle with their own masks and desires. In this universe, no one is just one thing. Everyone is in flux.
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The Power of Ambiguity
Ortega embraces ambiguity. Is Dolores a true rebirth, or a fugue state born of trauma? Has Remo been obliterated, or merely transformed? The film doesn’t exactly tell us, because it doesn’t need to. Its power lies in its refusal to explain. ‘Kill the Jockey’ invites viewers to witness a human being come undone and reassembled, not with logic but with feeling, movement, and mood. It’s not about finding the answer; it’s about being present for the question.
Beatriz Di Benedetto’s costumes, ranging from op-art jockey uniforms to disheveled thrift store glam, further this scenic blur. The character’s outward transformation mirrors an internal conflict, and the wardrobe plays a central role in visualizing this. Meanwhile, the music, an eclectic mix of electronic beats and moody ballads, echoes Remo’s oscillating inner monologue, propelling the film’s rhythms with wit and musicality.
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The Beauty of Getting Lost
For those who demand clear narrative arcs or grounded realism, ‘Kill the Jockey’ might prove frustrating. But for adventurous viewers open to the bizarre and beautiful, Ortega offers a bold, captivating experience. It’s a film that doesn’t stay in its lane, because it doesn’t believe in lanes at all. It jumps the fence, abandons the track, and disappears into the night, free, messy, and magnificent.
In the end, ‘Kill the Jockey’ isn’t just about one man’s downfall or reinvention; it’s about the wild, painful, exhilarating possibility that we are never just one self. It’s about the thrill of transformation, the danger of freedom, and the strange beauty of losing your way to finally find something new.
Credits:
Director: Luis Ortega
Writers: Fabian Casas, Luis Ortega, Rodolfo Palacios
Cinematographer: Timo Salminen
Costumer: Beatriz Di Benedetto
Starring: Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Úrsula Corberó, Daniel Giménez Cacho
By Elizabeth Gelber
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Elizabeth Gelber is an aspiring film and television producer and writer with a love for all things media, from music to fashion to entertainment. With a background in Television, Radio, and Film, as well as Fashion Communications, she is passionate about telling female-led stories that empower and resonate. Her work blends wit with empathy, aiming to humanize entertainment through an authentic lens. She believes the most powerful narratives are often rooted in everyday life, and she is drawn to creating media that reflects the world as it truly is, diverse, imperfect, and meaningful.
Elizabeth Gelber is an aspiring film and television producer and writer with a love for all things media, from music to fashion to entertainment. With a background in Television, Radio, and Film, as well as Fashion Communications, she is passionate about telling female-led stories that empower and resonate. Her work blends wit with empathy, aiming to humanize entertainment through an authentic lens. She believes the most powerful narratives are often rooted in everyday life, and she is drawn to creating media that reflects the world as it truly is, diverse, imperfect, and meaningful.
