“We gonna do what we always do. We’re gonna ride.”
It’s a simple phrase that also serves as a summation of Netflix’s upcoming drama Concrete Cowboy. Inspired by G. Neri’s novel Ghetto Cowboy, the film follows 15-year-old Cole after he’s expelled from school in Detroit and sent to North Philadelphia to live with Harp, his estranged father. Cole finds himself in a world of urban cowboys with Harp, who rehabilitates horses at the Fletcher Street Stables, a real-life Black urban horsemanship community that has provided a safe haven for the neighborhood residents for more than 100 years. As Cole grows closer to his father and his troubled cousin Smush, he’s torn between his growing respect for his father’s community and a life down a darker path, just as the stables become threatened by encroaching gentrification.
The film features a star-studded cast including Idris Elba and Caleb McLaughlin as the father-son duo, Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, Clifford “Method Man” Smith, and members of the Fletcher Street Stables. First-time feature filmmaker Ricky Staub wrote and helmed the movie. Dan Walser cowrote, and Tucker Tooley, Lee Daniels, Elba, Walser, Jeff Waxman, and Jennifer Madeloff served as producers. Watch the trailer ahead and take a look at the first photos from the film before Netflix drops Concrete Cowboy on April 2.
