Les Cowboys
Cohen Media Group | Release Date: June 24, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
2
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJun 23, 2016
Unfolding with a reticence that’s occasionally confusing, Les Cowboys presents a suggestive, almost abstract take on terror and the generational toxicity of bigotry. Read full review
88
Washington PostChristopher KompanekJun 30, 2016
Bidegain and cinematographer Arnaud Potier speak multitudes with wide-angle, slow-panning shots that immerse us in a post-9/11 quagmire that’s never less than utterly personal. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 24, 2016
With all this working against it, Les Cowboys strikes a fresh chord. The rise of jihadism has infused this revenge scenario with (all too literally) new blood. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 30, 2016
As in “The Searchers,” some of the motivations are questionable and murky. Yet the pain of losing someone you love is just as palpable. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 23, 2016
Bidegain, who for years has served as the muscle behind Jacques Audiard’s scripts, advances his ongoing deconstruction of genre-movie masculinity in his uncompromising, anti-romantic directorial debut. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 23, 2016
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. Read full review
80
Village VoiceMichael NordineJun 23, 2016
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. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 3, 2018
Director and co-writer Thomas Bidegain (he scripted “A Prophet”) gives us a tail of futility, of “saving” someone who does not want to be saved and the racism built into Alain’s fanatical pursuit. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJul 28, 2016
Alain might not have the very particular set of skills of Liam Neeson’s character in “Taken” (2008), but he does have the perseverance of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 23, 2016
Les Cowboys pulls in with no intention of letting you go. It's a workout worth taking. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 23, 2016
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. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijJun 23, 2016
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. Read full review
67
The Film StageNick NewmanJun 22, 2016
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. Read full review
60
TheWrapJun 22, 2016
Though Bidegain’s effort has its moments, it never gels into a cohesive, intimate-yet-expansive whole. Read full review
42
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonJun 20, 2016
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. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 24, 2016
The movie is pedantic, humorless, dry — all of the things that, as it happens, “The Searchers” is not. Read full review
12
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneMay 25, 2016
Never content to suffice as a mediocre thriller, Les Cowboys is a wellspring of embarrassment for all parties involved. Read full review
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