Fascinating and unexpected take on Taken, as well as the Searchers. Tennessee Waltz is haunting.

Beautifully shot and well paced, showcasing a wide mix of culture, diversity, religion, closure and love.

So I'll admit, I've never seen the older movie all the critics refer to in their reviews, so I just saw this movie for what it is -- a great movie. The movie draws you in with a challenging story of a man looking for his runaway daughter. I loved the exploration of two very different worlds - the cowboys and the new Indians or the middle east. Great backdrops, scenes, suspenseful with some twists, Les Cowboys builds characters and a story that leaves an everlasting impression on the mind. I found myself relating to multiple characters in the movie and I wasn't alone. The theater was filled with people crying and walking away from the movie exclaiming to their popcorn munching partners that this was indeed a great movie. This might be the best movie and certainly the best western I've seen since No Country for Old Men. Don't listen to the haters who feel the need to compare, this movie is excellent on its own merits.

"Les Cowboys" es un re-make contemporáneo de "The Searchers", el clásico del western de John Ford protagonizado por John Wayne. Su director es Thomas Bidegain, el guionista de la magnífica "A Prophet" del director Jacques Audiard. Aquí, un padre de familia francés obsesionado por los vaqueros norteamericanos (un excelente Francois Damiens) también se ve obsesionado por la desaparición repentina de su hija, que lo lleva a una búsqueda que consume tanto su vida, como la de su hijo (un también excelente Finnegan Oldfield). El ritmo, la potencia, la belleza y la dureza de "Les Cowboys" le hace honor a su influencia, y el debut de Bidegain como director en este "Escargot Western" lo pone en el mapa como un autor más que prometedor.

"Les Cowboys" es un re-make contemporáneo de "The Searchers", el clásico del western de John Ford protagonizado por John Wayne. Su director es Thomas Bidegain, el guionista de la magnífica "A Prophet" del director Jacques Audiard. Aquí, un padre de familia francés obsesionado por los vaqueros norteamericanos (un excelente Francois Damiens) también se ve obsesionado por la desaparición repentina de su hija, que lo lleva a una búsqueda que consume tanto su vida, como la de su hijo (un también excelente Finnegan Oldfield). El ritmo, la potencia, la belleza y la dureza de "Les Cowboys" le hace honor a su influencia, y el debut de Bidegain como director en este "Escargot Western" lo pone en el mapa como un autor más que prometedor.

This was pretty good movie. Basically "Finding Nemo" with an international twist. I would recommend seeing it in theaters and renting the DVD every once in a while from your local library.

Thomas Bidegain's pseudo-remake of The Searchers holds a very noble and intellectual concept, but it just doesn't deliver in a way that makes it engrossing. As social commentary, Les Cowboys is strong, as it makes inferences into racism for a post 9/11-world while rarely coming off as heavy-handed. It's just the storyline is loose and meandering, and doesn't straddle the pulp tropes well with the more palpable human drama. Also, while Thomas Bidegain makes a fairly impressive directorial debut here, he doesn't quite hold the visual panache to make his screenplay come off as transcendent like Jacques Audiard has done in the past (see A Prophet). It's far from a disaster, but it's a sorely average film with unmet ambitions.

Varilux Film Festival (Les cowboys)

MYFF15. A bit disjointed but interesting texture