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France · 2015
Rated R · 1h 54m
Director Thomas Bidegain
Starring François Damiens, Finnegan Oldfield, Agathe Dronne, Iliana Zabeth
Genre Drama
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When his daughter goes missing from their prairie town east of France, aspiring country singer Alain and his young son, Kid, head out to find her. The journey takes the men to some far-off and unsettling places in what begins to feel like an endless quest.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
Unlike the films he’s co-written for Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone…), which often rely on Audiard’s stunning capacity to foreground grand emotional sweeps, this is a much more constructed narrative that could only be described as a writer’s film, though one with several pleasant — if shocking is your idea of pleasant, that is — surprises up its sleeve.
San Francisco Chronicle by David Lewis
An absorbing, multilayered story about the search for a French girl who goes missing with her Muslim boyfriend, starts in a very un-French way: with cowboys, horses, a Marlboro Man-like billboard and country-and-western music.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Unfolding with a reticence that’s occasionally confusing, Les Cowboys presents a suggestive, almost abstract take on terror and the generational toxicity of bigotry.
Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang
Its strength lies in the way it continually collapses the distance between people and cultures, forcing its characters to reckon with what they perceive as strange and unfamiliar.
Village Voice by Michael Nordine
The strange, ever-changing result is, at times, as original as loose remakes come, with Bidegain using his hallowed source material as a springboard for something rare: a "writer's movie" that loses nothing in the jump from script to screen.
Will it change my consideration of European-Islamic relations? No. Have I thought about its moral quandaries in the days since seeing this film? More than most others, at least. Does Les Cowboys create an itch to again see The Searchers? Absolutely — and that alone is a fairly strong end result.
The Playlist by Oliver Lyttelton
Bidegain certainly scores points for ambition with his first film, and in scenes or snippets...you can see what he was aiming for. Unfortunately, by the time it’s done, Les Cowboys feels like a missed opportunity.
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Les Cowboys pulls in with no intention of letting you go. It's a workout worth taking.
Though Bidegain’s effort has its moments, it never gels into a cohesive, intimate-yet-expansive whole.
Slant Magazine by Steve Macfarlane
Never content to suffice as a mediocre thriller, Les Cowboys is a wellspring of embarrassment for all parties involved.
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