Who would have thought cowboys in Philly and Black no less? Concrete Cowboy is a small Netflix drama about 15-year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) reconnecting with his estranged cowboy dad, Harp (Idris Elba, also producer), in aging stables of Philadelphia, where a group of cowboys have their horses and their identities. Anyone who loved The Rider will find Concrete Cowboy just as interesting about horses and humans, although Cole is much too underdeveloped in this film to compete with Rider's Brady.
Although the film, based on G. Neri's Ghetto Cowboy (2011), has a generous supply of formula for a coming-of- age melodrama, the film infuses enough reality, including real cowboys to play parts, to make an enjoyable introduction to a culture most of us would never have known. Lenser Minka Farthing-Kohl finds beauty photographing the beautiful animals in the blighted 'hood, especially in sol-mo.
The Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is like no other, a Philadelphia organization for which the film makes no apology for its preaching about a slice of society ignored by pols and the public in general.
The film travels in formula with Cole initially rebellious and then transformed by the horse experience, Harp going soft on the Cole, ignoramuses threatening the cowboy life, etc., well, you get the idea. What keeps it above average is the measured development overseen by director Ricky Staub, whereby incrementally the story reveals good guys and bad, and the cowboys will ride on.
Like Cole and Harp, the story is about finding peace with loved ones and the world, both of which may guide us to a place called home. Even though the characters are outside the normal pale, they are worthwhile, sometimes talented folk who deserve a break. The fact that they are Black, urban cowboys is fascinating and itself a metaphor for repressed minorities everywhere.
