Coverage from NewFest the 32nd Annual LGBTQ Film Festival
Films about young transgender children tend to focus on the responses of parents to the reality of what their children express to them. Teenagers can talk back and run away from home, but if they’re younger, it’s unlikely that they will be able to fully separate themselves from a situation, good or bad. A Kid Like Jake was one recent effort starring Claire Danes and Jim Parsons about parents who were mostly on the same page about accepting their four-year-old. Cowboys, which is screening as part of NewFest, finds its adults at odds when it comes to supporting their child, Joe…
Steve Zahn stars as Troy, the hotheaded husband of Sally (Jillian Bell), whose temper strains their relationship and frequently lands him in jail. Troy can tell that Joe (Sasha Knight) is deeply unhappy because his mother insists that he dress like a girl despite his clear indication that he is indeed a boy. Desperate to give Joe the life he wants, Troy takes him into the woods of Montana, headed for the Canadian border on a wild adventure that allows the two to bond as father and son, pursued by a determined detective (Ann Dowd) set on bringing a girl back to her mother.
This film deftly handles the poignant coming out of its young protagonist. Troy is initially confused when Joe says that he feels like a boy, clarifying that there is no problem with Joe being a tomboy. After Joe insists, Troy understands and, foreign as the idea might be to him, he wants to be supportive. Sally is not open to hearing it in part because of her conservative background, but she takes what Joe says as a personal insult. Joe wants to be like his father, who is a cowboy, which means that he must resent his mother and love her less.
The issues Troy and Sally face in their struggle to come to terms with having a transgender child are surely applicable to many real experiences. What makes this film particularly appealing, however, is the way that Troy completely embraces Joe and seeks to give him true happiness in their own private nature oasis. Their time together is reminiscent of the enthralling playfulness of Hunt for the Wilderpeople. The film debut of Knight is exceptional, and Zahn, whose performances are often unserious, impresses as a father motivated equally by love and by a complicated relationship with reality due to his mental health. This film is an endearing and resounding portrait of family, one that is far from simple but appropriately representative of all definitions of identity.
Cowboys is available to screen at NewFest 2020 now through Tuesday, October 27th.