Post by Dracula on Jun 12, 2021 11:12:39 GMT -5
Concrete Cowboy(5/16/2021)
Concrete Cowboy is a coming of age drama about a black teenager who has been getting into some trouble, so his mother sends him to Philadelphia to live with his father (played by Idris Elba) who is part of a rather peculiar sub-culture of black men who, despite living in an urban center, keep and ride horses and consider themselves cowboys. I wonder how deep into the chart run of “Old Town Road” Netflix waited until they decided to greenlight the film. The story reminded me a lot of a book I read in grade school called “Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World” by Mildred Pitts Walter, which was similarly about a African American youth who similarly has a bit of a coming of age experience when sent to live with a (rural) cowboy relative, but this film is about an older youth and is a bit more “streetwise” though I’m not sure that the central story has all that much more to say. Ultimately the film is probably meant more as an entry point to explore this sub-culture, which I can’t say I knew about prior and were I to have them described to me I’m not sure I’d have felt that people keeping farm animals in the middle of the city was a good idea… and I’m not sure I feel much differently after seeing it. The film kind of takes it as a given that its audience is going to be charmed by this group and see the wisdom in their lifestyle but I’m not sure I did, or at least I’m not sure why they feel riding horses around Philadelphia (or much of anywhere else) is fun or meaningful to them and the whole exploration of this sub-culture feels pretty surfacey. Still, I think the core coming of age narrative is functional and the filmmaking is decent. It’s a neat little movie, but probably not a particularly memorable one.
**1/2 out of Five
Concrete Cowboy is a coming of age drama about a black teenager who has been getting into some trouble, so his mother sends him to Philadelphia to live with his father (played by Idris Elba) who is part of a rather peculiar sub-culture of black men who, despite living in an urban center, keep and ride horses and consider themselves cowboys. I wonder how deep into the chart run of “Old Town Road” Netflix waited until they decided to greenlight the film. The story reminded me a lot of a book I read in grade school called “Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World” by Mildred Pitts Walter, which was similarly about a African American youth who similarly has a bit of a coming of age experience when sent to live with a (rural) cowboy relative, but this film is about an older youth and is a bit more “streetwise” though I’m not sure that the central story has all that much more to say. Ultimately the film is probably meant more as an entry point to explore this sub-culture, which I can’t say I knew about prior and were I to have them described to me I’m not sure I’d have felt that people keeping farm animals in the middle of the city was a good idea… and I’m not sure I feel much differently after seeing it. The film kind of takes it as a given that its audience is going to be charmed by this group and see the wisdom in their lifestyle but I’m not sure I did, or at least I’m not sure why they feel riding horses around Philadelphia (or much of anywhere else) is fun or meaningful to them and the whole exploration of this sub-culture feels pretty surfacey. Still, I think the core coming of age narrative is functional and the filmmaking is decent. It’s a neat little movie, but probably not a particularly memorable one.
**1/2 out of Five
