Review of Les Cowboys (2015) by Liz F — 01 Jul 2016

Thomas Bidegain's pseudo-remake of The Searchers holds a very noble and intellectual concept, but it just doesn't deliver in a way that makes it engrossing. As social commentary, Les Cowboys is strong, as it makes inferences into racism for a post 9/11-world while rarely coming off as heavy-handed.

It's just the storyline is loose and meandering, and doesn't straddle the pulp tropes well with the more palpable human drama. Also, while Thomas Bidegain makes a fairly impressive directorial debut here, he doesn't quite hold the visual panache to make his screenplay come off as transcendent like Jacques Audiard has done in the past (see A Prophet).

It's far from a disaster, but it's a sorely average film with unmet ambitions.