Thanks to the Toronto International Film Festival, I got to screen the Concrete Cowboy movie before its Netflix release, and I am super excited to finally share my initial thoughts.
Concrete Cowboy is a 2020 American Western drama film about a 15-year-old boy (Caleb McLaughlin) from Detroit who is sent to live with his estranged father (Idris Elba) in Philadelphia and learns about the local urban cowboys.
Concrete Cowboy is directed by Ricky Staub, from a screenplay by Staub and Dan Walser, based upon the novel Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri. It also stars Jharrel Jerome, Lorraine Toussaint, Byron Bowers and Method Man.
Here Are 39 Thoughts I Had While Watching The Concrete Cowboy Movie
1. First of all this should be good, because I love horses!
2. I dead just saw Method Man is in this!
3. I’m glad she hit him, ’cause who you cursing at my good sir?!
4. The way she locked him out the car and just left him there makes me wanna cry. Please know that’s hard to do. I don’t have a son. But I know for sure it’s extremely hard to do.
5. His dad supposed to come home to let this boy in and he just sitting there talking! He ain’t even doing shit, talking bout “5 mins”. Sir go NOW!
6. Why the hell is there a whole horse INSIDE the house?! And folks be mad when folks have dogs inside?
7. Philly folks dead smoke in they house and I hate that ish with a passion!
8. I’ve never seen horses in the city like this! (New York City police horses don’t count, it ain’t the same.)
9. Awwww this is gonna be good!
10. Just the interactions between Jarrell and Caleb alone is everything!!!
11. Wait, why don’t he just go to the neighbors house??
12. This boy slow as hell.
13. Where he randomly get shoes from and why he think no one gon’ notice?
14. I like Paris. And I appreciate him teaching Cole what to do and how to make things go faster instead of doing it one shovel at a time. Whew!
15. His struggle with this wheelbarrow reminds me of me struggling to climb the hills in St. Vincent.
16. Wait sometimes he don’t eat because he gotta feed his horse? Jeez! At what point do you say this pet is too expensive for me?
17. Why Method Man gotta be the damn sheriff?!
18. Another movie without trauma!? I’m here for it.
19. They really making Idris rap in this?! Lord!
20. The story about how Paris lost his legs and his brother is gonna make you wanna cry, and it’s a story every young kid needs to hear to be reminded that fighting is stupid!
21. Smoosh seems like he needs Cole more than Cole needs him.
22. He more scared of the damn horse than the horse scared of everyone else!
23. This is so good!
24. Another story we need mainstream!
25. I really hope he don’t end up getting hurt messing with this boy.
26. Shit just got intense!!
27. Why do I like this chase scene so much?? The way it’s filmed, the way it feels! Everything.
28. What’s wrong with him?! He was gonna get his ass kidnapped!!!
29. I appreciate seeing Cole cry that needs to be normalized.
30. This is what anger does to our kids?! The anger from his mom leaving him, from his dad not loving him the way he needs to be loved, from his horse *omitted*, now he’s hanging out with this dude again!
31. I told you someone was gonna die!!!
32. I don’t think this is amazingggg, but I do think it’s a great story that needed to be told.
33. It’s nice to see a Black boys’ grief not shown through anger because boys are more than just angry! They have more emotions than just anger, and that needs to be normalized!
34. When you don’t know what else to do with your son that you disown them because it’s too hard for you! Jeezus! Please don’t give up on our kids. Please keep trying even if it hurts! They’ll remember who always tried the same way they’ll remember who left. This breaks my heart.
35. The ending makes me so emotional! They failed him! They failed to love him!
36. That’s a lovely way to end.
37. Awww Paris is a REAL street rider, and so is Esha!
38. I didn’t even know Philly had horses until this. (Like yeah, it’s possible, but I don’t think we think about certain cities in this way until it’s shown to us.)
39. Thank you for making this. Thank you for putting this story out into the world, I’m grateful for it. These are the stories I wanna see being made! Stories of Black people in places where we forget or don’t know they exist.
Full review of the Concrete Cowboy movie coming soon. Until then, here are my favorite quotes from the film.
Awww thank you!!! It's so good!!