Cowboys hit me differently than I expected. This story is presented as a man trying to save his trans son from a mother who won't accept the boy but it ends up being so much more than that, so much more. The characters are all far more complicated, and the story becomes so much more desperate. Cowboys is a gut punch and an inspiration, a film that gives its subjects so much more respect and honesty than we might expect to see. It could have had a Hallmarky movie feel and it dispels that right away instead embracing a harder more difficult story that gives real honesty to its characters.
Steve Zahn gives what is likely his career best performance as a dad, struggling with mental illness, who embraces the responsibility of protecting his son. He isn't the man we think he is at first, defying the stereotypes that dog him, to be a hero for his boy. But the film is far more grounded than just than narrative. The story leans full into his struggles with addiction and a diagnosis he is barely managing with his medications. He doesn't make a lot of good decisions here despite what are truly the best of intentions and an abundance of love for his child. His performance is complicated and rings so true for anyone who knows and loves someone who struggles with the kind of manic personality this character does. Zahn nails it in an award winning performance that is fully deserving of the attention he is getting.
Jillian Bell plays completely against type as a working class mom who also is so much more than she appears at the beginning of the film. It would be easy to see her as a narrow minded and aggressive but the film allows her story and conflicts to be explored too. As a woman growing up around a great deal of toxic masculinity and the adaptations she has made to endure that world, she isn't a villain, even if she also makes a lot of really bad choices. In her desire to protect her child she hurts the person she loves the most, damages them. Cowboys allows its characters to be imperfect, to be cruel, to flounder towards redemption, and to be human too.
Newcomer Sasha Knight plays the boy who knows who he is and is relying on the adults around him to keep him safe, and it is fascinating to watch him struggle as they falter to do what they need to do. He shows a great strength of character in loving those around him and giving them the space to learn and grow. His performance is raw and honest and shows a lot of promise for this young actor.
Cowboys kept being more and more real for me as a watched it. Its portrayal of the trans boy's attempts to be himself are very honest, but this is a film about his parents and their different ways of responding to their son's needs, neither of them doing it well, but both loving him, hurting him, letting him down, but also perhaps giving him the love he needs to grow into the man he will be. In the end Cowboys is about the way we fail as parents and the ways we succeed. It is about the love we have for our children and how much we want to be all we can for them. It broke me a little as I watched it and it was the kind of breaking that leads to good healing.
Cowboys
Starring: Steve Zahn, Jillian Bell, Sasha Knight, Ann Dowd, Gary Farmer
Writer/Director: Anna Karrigan
No comments:
Post a Comment