Mark Reviews Movies: COWBOYS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 11, 2021

Cowboys tells the story of a father and his transgender son, as the two are on the run from the child's disapproving mother and, of course, the law. Writer/director Anna Kerrigan's film is short but sweet, a bit shallow but empathetic, and a bit narratively jumbled but wholly committed to the central relationship.

It begins with the apparent disappearance of Joe (Sasha Knight), the child of separated couple Troy (Steve Zahn) and Sally (Jillian Bell). Upon finding Joe's room empty and the window open, Sally calls the cops. Faith (Ann Dowd), a police detective, is on the case, asking for a recent photo of Joe. The mother only has one of the kid in a dress and with long hair.

When we meet Joe, though, the kid is dressed like a cowboy with short hair. Through a series of flashbacks, intercut with Joe's adventures with Troy, we learn that Joe was born into a girl's body but hasn't felt like a girl in a long time, if ever. There's a touching scene of Joe telling Troy this information, and the way the father goes from disbelieving laughter to absolute acceptance defines this relationship.

Zahn, an actor who spent some time shedding the comedic persona of his early career, is exceptional here, embodying easy, natural compassion that carries even Kerrigan's most questionable decision in this story. Troy isn't just a dedicated and sympathetic father, taking Joe to Canada so he can have a good life. He also suffers from an unidentified mental health issue, which leads him to states of manic obsession and anger.

It's a lot, but Troy's condition is mostly employed as a plot device here—in the flashbacks, building toward the moment when he was forced away from his wife and child and, in the present-tense story, asking us to wonder if Troy is the right person for this task. Even with this added baggage, though, the film serves as a fine study of this unique father-son bond, and it even gives Sally a chance to learn about acceptance through absence. The cop stuff is mostly extraneous, pushing the story toward a pretty predictable and manipulative climax.

Even so, the heart of Cowboys is in the right place. With its trio of central performances (Zahn, Knight, and Bell, with Dowd suggesting some unexplored understanding, too), that emotional and empathetic core is firm.

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