There’s conflicting cultures in Concrete Cowboy: TIFF Review

You probably haven’t heard of downtown Philadelphia’s community of cowboys in the city, but they’re there. That’s the backdrop for the new and almost interesting drama Concrete Cowboy.

But while it portrays a fascinating culture, it falls short of good storytelling for two reasons. One is that its main characters don’t really have a goal or quest to go on other than learning about horses. The other arguably more important problem is whether or not debut writer/director Ricky Staub was the right person to lead this project.

Let’s start with the former. The focus of Concrete Cowboy is 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin, known for Netflix’s Stranger Things) who’s mother sends him to spend the summer with his father (Idris Elba) who he barely knows. When he arrives, he’s surprised to learn his dad is an urban cowboy, complete with a horse in his living room.

Much of the film centres on Cole bonding with his father reluctantly learning how to care for the horses and resisting temptation to join estranged friends of his in joining in petty, organized street crime with them.

McLaughlin and Elba both give more to their parts than are written for them, even in a slight lack of their own authenticity. For nearly two hours, all Cole really does is learn about the horses as the audience does, and watching him think about horses and his choices isn’t really an interesting journey for us to follow.

Not all of it is bad, though. One of Cole’s mentors is “Paris”, played by his real-life counterpart Jamil “Paris” Prattis. (He’s a character in the book that inspired the screenplay.) This is how Cole learns, as he’s often told, “hard things come before good things.”

The best scene of the whole film is a campfire discussion among the riders about how black cowboys throughout history have better understood breaking in a horse. They explain “breaking in” doesn't mean breaking the spirit of the animal - and their black experience knows that’s not how you build something up.

This parallel oppression they’ve lived through is a reclaiming of this history and the little known black cowboy culture. And that’s why it’s a weird a white man wrote and directed it.

Concrete Cowboy’s second problem is Ricky Staub, directing his first feature, is a white man directing and co-writing (with another white man) this exploration of the modern black experience. He’s a talented filmmaker with an eye for great shots and a passion for character details. But is he the most qualified person to tell this story?

I would argue no. He seems like a strange choice to lead this project, and perhaps why there’s a stiffness as Cole is discovering himself throughout the film. Is this also why this looks more like an observer’s retelling of the cowboys rather than a dramatic story actually about them?

Star Elba and well-known filmmaker Lee Daniels are both producers on the film, and it seems like an odd choice to be the directional voice for this movie. I’d argue it was the wrong one.

The movie isn’t bad by any means, and I hope Staub makes more films. There’s also a definite presence that the nearly all black cast carries on screen. And the lighting of Philadelphia from all times of day and sceneries is a great backdrop for the horses.

Aside from horse aficionados, this is among the more forgettable films from TIFF this year. But rest assured it’ll be a long time before I forget about Idris Elba’s hammy, inconsistent Texan drawl accent.

Concrete Cowboy

5 out of 10

1hr 51mins. Western Drama.

Co-written and Directed by Ricky Staub.

Starring Caleb McLaughlin, Idris Elba, Jharrel Jerome and Clifford "Method Man" Smith.

Streaming now on TIFF’s Bell Digital Cinema and plays the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Saturday September 19th, with tickets available online.