Steve Zahn and Jillian Bell play parents feuding over their trans son in "Cowboys," but both actors agree the film doesn t paint either one as the villain.
What’s new to VOD and streaming this weekend
Including reviews of Judas And The Black Messiah, Cowboys, The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things and Saint Maud By Norman Wilner
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OW critics pick what’s new to streaming and VOD for the weekend of February 12. Plus: Everything new to VOD and streaming platforms.
Judas And The Black Messiah
(Shaka- King)
In less skilful hands, Judas And The Black Messiah could play like hollow Oscar bait, a tragedy of Black lives manipulated by cynical white authority in a less enlightened time. Instead, director/co-writer King’s powerhouse drama about the complicity of FBI informant William O’Neal in the 1969 murder of Black Panthers community organizer Fred Hampton keeps subtly drawing parallels to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement, showing us how little has changed in the ensuing half-century. The film has a nervous, contemporary feel, every scene carrying an immediacy that threatens to punch through the period setting. And t
Award-Winning Film Shot in Montana Hits VOD Friday
Montana has become a recent hotspot for Hollywood film and television productions (so much so that I feel they should broadcast at least part of this year s Oscars right here in Missoula). Soon we ll be able to catch up with the fourth season of
Yellowstone and see tons of Missoula locals popping up as extras; but in the meantime, here s another production that seems well worth your time.
A new movie called
Cowboys is hitting video-on-demand services on Friday, February 12th. The movie was shot in 2019 and filmed in locations like Missoula, Flathead Valley, and Glacier National Park. And though it premieres for the public tomorrow, there s a chance you may have seen it already - if you attended this year s virtual Montana Film Fesitval, that is.
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Writer-director Anna Kerrigan’s western-tinged “Cowboys” feels like the right movie at the right time. This tough and tender tale, which pits big-hearted, bipolar Dad Troy (an excellent Steve Zahn), and his 11-year-old transgender son, Joe (newcomer Sasha Knight), against an insulated world of traditional values and expectations, should grip, move and surprise viewers in equal measure.
The film, set in present-day Montana, effectively uses flashbacks to outline the patchy relationship between the spirited, impulsive Troy; his more pragmatic wife, Sally (Jillian Bell); and their angelic child, who believes he was born in the wrong body and yearns to present as his true self.