REVIEW: CONCRETE COWBOY

 

4/5

Concrete and Gold.

111 Mins. Starring: Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin, Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorainne Toussaint, Clifford 'Method Man' Smith. Director: Ricky Staub. 

Take your horse to the old town road and ride until you can't no more for this one. The streaming giant Netflix have crossed classic work with their big-three of black excellence headlining this horse drawn picture before. Saddling 'Luther' and 'The Wire' icon Idris Elba up with 'Beasts Of No Nation' more than half a decade ago in 2015. A film so brutal and brilliant it even made Leonardo DiCaprio's classic 'Blood Diamond' look like a cubic zirconia. Starting the Netflix bid that the service was getting robbed of Academy nominations in the 'Oscars So White' era that led to black and white beauty of 'Roma'. And of course we all know the kid Caleb McLaughlin from the 80's nostalgia of Netflix's back to the Goonie future best show, the Duffer Brothers' 'Stranger Things'. But the former child star is really coming of age now. Like friends, I don't lie. Plus then of course there's the undeniable Jharrel Jerome of Ava DuVernay's groundbreaking major miniseries 'When They See Us', giving justice to the Central Park 5. Bet you really see him now. Add cackling comedian Byron Bowers, the greatness of 'The Equalizer' and 'Orange Is The New Black' actress Lorraine Toussaint and the Wu Tang Clan's very own Clifford 'Method Man' Smith ('Paterson' and '187') who really isn't anything to f### with here in perhaps his best copped role yet as police and you really have something. Something that stalking the outskirts of the roots of the at stake skyline, walks, no trots the streets of Philadelphia like Springsteen. The place where the Fresh Prince was born, raising stallions. Based on Greg Neri's 'Ghetto Cowboy', this 'Concrete Cowboy' uses real horseman for its supporting character actors like the 'Nomadland' of Oscar nominated director Chloé Zhao. Or better yet the whole cast of her landmark family film, 'The Rider' that takes you deep into the Western world of those previously hidden under the shade of a stetson. And from falling down in fear of never getting back up, to riding into the night. All the beauty and brutality that comes with man becoming one with these majestic beasts, like standing on the back of one in the pink pastel atmosphere of a sunset that blooms like sakura in the Far East this time of year, until the dandelions fall like blossom. All the pretty horses and all their Kings men are on display here, all the way down to shovelling their hoof heavy s### in this redemption story that rides like 'The Mustang', but looks deeper into the broken bonds between fractured family in a father and son ode that once like he was now would make Cat Stevens tearful and proud. Ride out. 

"The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed"...for 90 minutes. Now whoever thought you could turn the legendary Stephen King's magnum opus of eight volumes and one short story into an hour and a half movie must have been more all play, intstead of "all work", but a forthcoming TV serial may iron all that out, 'Misery' sledgehammer flat. 2017's 'The Dark Tower' may have been the length of a football match, but it still spurred inspired interpretations of King's two famous adversaries. From Matthew McConaughey's accented Man in Black who had nothing to do with Johnny Cash or those who protect the world from the worst scum of the universe, to Idris Elba's great Gunslinger, reloading and firing at a compelling clip that does not aim, or forget the face of his father. No matter how bruised and battered he was, he still killed it with his heart. Seeing a black cowboy here like there is so important. Its on a 'Django Unchained' (forget a 'Wild, Wild West' or actually the hate for this fun film), or a Denzel leading 'The Magnificent Seven' level. For everything adopted, appropriated and taken by the man, like the stables of the unstable land these ranch hands reside on in Philly and reduced to a 'Blazing Saddles' punchline. Idris influence quietly holds this one close like the restrained passion of a father who only seems like he has forgotten the face of his son. Staring at him from the stairs as the sun comes up, chewing corn, Elba's enigmatic stoicism smouldering to boiling point here is soberingly severe. The man who seems so charismatic on franchises like 'The Suicide Squad', 'Thor', 'Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw' and 'Pacific Rim' cancels all that solemnly here (forget an apocalypse). But in a vest and stets, draping a flannel shirt over his biceps and sweat, this sex symbol gives us a symbolic performance that's as stirring as his directorial debut 'Yardie'. Adding to his Netflix continue watching career like his 'Turn It Up Charlie' DJ series, this musician who even made a Mandela album that had nothing to do with his 'Long Walk To Freedom' iconic biopic days more with two words than he does with his epic speech in defence of Jessica Chastain in 'Molly's Game' that's more uprising than his one he had in the face of a fight with the kaijus. Kong Kong ain't got s### on him. If they gave out Oscars for silent performances, he'd speak for as many as Chaplin. 

Thoroughbred talent Red Rum runs through 'Concrete Cowboy' like the races. But it's the aggravated angst of Caleb McLaughlin that really strikes your heart like a stone from a Simpson catapult. You really feel it when he says, "you say you're a f#####g cowboy? You're a f#####g coward!" Whilst the Eleven of his friend Millie Bobby Brown mediates the battle royale between 'Godzilla vs. Kong' this week, this Hawkins native is no stranger to close communities bonded by beasts, but this thing is a whole other animal. Caleb compels us with character from the wrong side of the tracks, born from heart and a broken one torn apart. As left on his father's porch by his mother he doesn't know which side of the street to walk on. The one teeming with the abusive relationship of drugs and a quick buck, or the one full of heart and the canter of those that actually care. The unconditional love you get from animals, or family. No matter how down and out you are. McLaughlin knows how to stir the heart strings as well as take the reins and really, this is his movie. Idris is the big name. Caleb is the picture of the future. And right now with young man of the moment Jharrel Jerome's criminal character in the form of an old friend trying to blow smoke screens and rings round him, Caleb more than holds his own in this hazed dance with an actor that normally runs rings round his peers. Instead tag-teeming it up, this young Batman and Robin are dynamic in this duet. McLaughlin riding shotgun to Jerome as Jharrel shows you there's an inherent fear to the young men that live a life of crime that doesn't really pay when it keeps a vice grip on any chance or hope of them being saved. Netflix haven't explored this so real and raw since last year's 'All Day and a Night' under the moonlight of fellow next in line, Ashton Sanders. This movie is rounded out by the deck chair circle of storytelling led by a brilliant Byron Bowers by the oil drum fire like it was a camp one in the plains and the surrogate mothering of Lorainne Toussaint's terrific saint. Not to mention the actual individuals of this community who go from real lifers to competent actors in an academy that truly is as real and as manure raw as it gets. But it's the methods of rapper slash actor Clifford Smith that move man. Character investigating a detective torn between the pages he goes by in the book, to the good one that says he should toss his badge in the the stream and take care of his own. Looking after his flock. Between the line of duty and the ones you shouldn't cross with your brothers that aren't blue. It's a masterclass in confliction that he even displayed 'In The Air' of a Beanie Sigel video back in the day that saw this undercover narc bring it to the doorstep of his fellow rapper with a warrant and a weary look he shrugged and shook off like he did fellow MC's in competition. This powerful performance and everything else makes this powerhouse concrete strong in this urban jungle. Ricky Staub makes a great directing stab at this one. Remember the classic Guinness Compton Cowboys commercial, were the Los Angeles rider asks of his steed. "Did I save the horse, or did the horse save me?" Forget asking yourself why people are drinking the Irish whiskey in Los Angeles and raise your glass. Here's to the ones who have saved us. Whether they walk on two legs, or four. Now that's real horse power. Click, click. Giddy up. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'All The Pretty Horses', 'The Rider', 'The Mustang'.