BLACK HORSE trainers on the streets of North Philadelphia, yep, apparently that was a thing and we’re going to find out all about in Concrete Cowboy featuring Britain’s Idris Elba.
First premiered at the Toronto Film Festival critics have praised the movie for a positive depiction of the rarely covered Black Cowboy narrative.
Director Ricky Staub’s adaptation of the Greg Neri novel tells the story of a young 15-year-old who gets expelled from a Detroit school. His mother has had enough and drives him over 600 miles to his father’s doorstep.
Dad, Elba, takes the young man (Caleb McLaughlin) under his wing introducing the very urban teen to the ways of the small community in which he resides.
Torn between his growing respect for his father’s community and his reemerging friendship with troubled cousin Smush, Cole begins to reprioritiz ehis life as the stables themselves are threatened by encroaching gentrification.
Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, Cliff “Method Man” Smith and members of the Fletcher Street Stables also co-star in this moving father-son drama about a teen caught between a life of crime and his estranged father’s vibrant urban-cowboy subculture.
Streaming this Friday on Netflix Concrete Cowboy is presented as a story of reconciliation, a coming together of family existing in almost polar opposite realities.
Talking to usatoday.com Elba talked about the elements of playing the role which resonated with him as well as how he got around his horse allergies and the beauty of connecting with the animal.
He reflected: “There’s one (scene) where Harp talks about his mother and the advice she used to give him.
“It’s that father/son dialogue I have with my kids that really resonated with me. The Harp storyline was very different from mine, but I could relate to it just being a dad.”
He added: “There’s something very unnatural for the horse to have someone sit on its back. And if they don’t want you on their back, there is no connection.
“They will very quickly let you know that. So immediately, if you can get onto a horse’s back, you definitely connect with them. There’s a language: They’re sensing you, reading your movements and relating to you. I really found that so fascinating.”
Elba, 48, is also a producer on Concrete Cowboy and stars alongside Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, and Clifford “Method Man” Smith.
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