Weekend Watch: Concrete Cowboy
Does Idris Elba's latest tell a compelling tail... er... tale?
Image Credit: Netflix
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Idris Elba saddles up. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
Idris Elba has had success with stories based on real-life experiences before – Beasts Of No Nation was an early hit for Netflix and, of course, he’s played Nelson Mandela. Concrete Cowboy has its roots in reality, though the story wrapped around it fails to make as much an impact as that previous work.
Director Ricky Staub and co-writer Dan Walser draw from G. Neri’s YA novel Ghetto Cowboys, yet the real focus here is the Fletcher Street stables, part of the sometimes thriving, often moveable network of similar setups in Philadelphia, where roving bands of urban cowboys care for horses and help keep youngsters from a life of crime on the streets.
The narrative here is of Cole (Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin, who, upon being expelled from his school in Detroit following his latest corridor fight, is dropped off by his mother Amahle (Liz Priestly) to spend time with his estranged father, Harp (Elba). He’s part of the Fletcher Street group, with plenty of taciturn wisdom to share and work in the stables to offer. Cole, of course, is initially hesitant, unwilling to wade into the muck and shoveling of caring for the horses. He also falls back in with Smush (Jharrel Jerome), an old friend from back in the day who used to ride with Harp and co., but these days spends his time as a low-level drug runner with dreams of doing more. And so is set in motion a morality clash: will Cole choose a life of crime, or will he ride to a better world?
The answer is not really tough to figure out, and it’s part of the reason that the film trots down some very familiar paths. Scenes with the Fletcher Street gang and their mounts (with the human cast including actual members of the group) are raucous and enjoyable, with banter and care traded over fire pits and while caring for the animals. Elba does a good job fitting in with them, making Harp a believably tough-but-fair rider. McLaughlin, meanwhile, makes for a solid audience surrogate learning the ropes. There are important things to say here about the erasure of black cowboys from cultural depictions of riders. And given Staub’s background in Philadelphia, he paints a warm, believable portrait of the place.
Sadly, though, the father/son dynamic and the crime angle rarely meet the same quality threshold, and the footage of the actual Fletcher Street veterans just makes you wish that Staub had instead turned his hand to a documentary instead.
Concrete Cowboy is on Netflix now.