I thought I had reviewed “Concrete Cowboy” (Netflix, 04.02.21) during this past September’s Toronto International Film Festival, but no, I didn’t. That’s how underwhelmed I was by director Ricky Staub’s film, I didn’t bother writing anything about it. It has shades of familiarity in its coming-of-age genre tropes, and it’s all-too slickly delivered narrative. The plot has a troubled teenager (Caleb McLaughlin) spending the summer in North Philadelphia and his estranged father’s (Elba) vibrant urban-cowboy subculture. I found the whole thing rather forced and unimpressive, which is a real shame considering the unique milieu deserves a more vivid depiction — I mean, urban Philadelphia, Cowboys, Horses, as Joe Biden would say, come on, man!
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This is the adaptation of the nonfiction book by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz. It wrapped production in February and has been in post-production ever since. The film test-screened a few months ago.