Director Chloé Zhao’s predilection for casting non-professionals made for a better fit in her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me. It’s true that, when left alone on a screen to break in a horse or rehab a busted bronco buster friend, Brady Jandreau’s naturalism proves eminently watchable. But the rest of this grim and purposeful drama about an irreparably damaged rider considering a return to the saddle has to make do with cast members who, in re-creating their real-life selves, simply don’t have in their possession the shading needed to bring to their characters something more than the ability to read lines. Poetic face-of-God landscapes serve here to bridge motivational dialogue scenes. But if giving up your dream entails something other than a surgeon installing a zipper in your skull after a 2000 pound horse waltzes over it, by all means, check out a career in aluminum siding sales. (2017) — Scott Marks