Concrete Cowboy

Movies involving at-risk youth being involved with a program to learn responsibility aren't anything but can be wholesome to watch if done well. Typically they are protagonists whose reputation with "street" activities can often put their lives in danger if taken too far and these plot lines get predictable admittedly. An example of this that comes to mind would be Step-Up, the dance film featuring Channing Tatum in a similar spot though in his case was dancing. This brings us to a new entry in this type of area, Concrete Cowboy, which was directed by Ricky Staub and is based on the novel Ghetto Cowboy, which was inspired by a real life African American horse-riding community in Philadelphia. I didn't know much about this film except its limited marketing highlighting Idris Elba as its big star but was curious to see if it had anything of value. After watching it on Netflix, I was underwhelmed by its execution despite its best intentions.

What's it about? The story follows a Detroit teenager whose mom sends him off to live with his estranged father in the summer with a horse riding community. Something going for this is how it highlights the real life culture group, the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club. It displays some of its actual members portraying fictional versions of themselves having supportive parts alongside their interviews during the end credits. It goes about mentioning the struggles of maintaining their status of providing care to the horses. Even the ending does a nice job not sugarcoating this aspect.

 

If you didn't any mentioning of the narrative itself back there, that's because it ends up joining the list of problems holding back this drama's potential. The writers dipped their hands into a bucket of recycled predictable cliches that spilled it all over the script, leaving its characters off as uninteresting archetypes. With its focus more on the teen rather than his bond with his dad, it skips around a lot event wise and there isn't much emotional investment. There are numerous undercooked elements such as not thoroughly exploring why these culture struggle to maintain their operations (only passing mentions), the father-son dynamic is barely focused on and winds up getting skipped over too, and feels like a less effective advertisement of this community.

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actor to focus on are Caleb McLaughlin. Caleb gives the best performance of the cast where he carries himself well as a lead, which is a nice improvement from his Stranger Things work, despite the predictable material. Honorable mentions  Clifford "Method Man" Smith and Jamil Pattis for being standouts among the supportive cast. Dishonorable mention goes to Idris Elba for not bringing his great acting chops to make the most of his limited screen time (yeah he's not in it as much as you want him to be).

 

Overall Consensus: Concrete Cowboy doesn't land its impact well due to sluggish pacing, lengthy runtime, and predictable script lacking emotional investment, despite its best intentions regarding a fascinating group. ⭑⭑⭑3/4 Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes R

 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Rickey Staub. You want to have a Netflix drama turned on as background noise. You are familiar with the aforementioned culture and are want to see how they are handled in a film. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Rickey Staub. You dislike dramas with bad pacing and long runtime in a boring experience. You aren't in the mood for predictable cliched storytelling.