“Cowboy”
Filmed in Louisiana
Directed by Nathan Grubbs
Making its UK premiere at Raindance on June 25
June 9, 2026
What is a Western that’s not set in the American West? A tale of honor? A remixing of familiar tropes in a new place? Or maybe something new all together?
“Cowboy,” directed by Nathan Grubbs and written by Joshua Ryan Dietz, Jeff Hoffman and Chris Sivertson is a Western set in New Orleans. It’s about a veteran named Juno (played by Grubbs) who commits a series of robberies with a friend until a heist gone wrong ends in tragedy and sends Juno to prison. After serving his time, Juno reintegrates into society and tries to make amends for the harm he’s caused by working on the horse ranch that he tried to rob.
The story follows a classic redemption arc. Juno serves time in prison, is released and tries to make amends for his mistakes by seeking out the girl who was injured and subsequently blinded by his last robbery. Over the course of the film, they fall for each other. They’re basically playing house in bliss until people Juno has wronged in the past start blackmailing him and, separately, the ranch comes to face foreclosure.
The film is stylistically interesting for its use of freeze frames during climatic moments. It’s an aesthetically beautiful story about a flawed guy trying to make amends, but there are two elephants in the room here that are hard to ignore.
The first is the setting. Juno serves time in Angola, which is glossed over in the context of the film with a five year time lapse. This doesn’t have to be a prison movie, but the allusions to the Angola Prison Rodeo and the premise of the movie taken together make it almost too convenient and interesting not to explore more fully.
The second is the way Juno goes to Eve (Alexandra Essoe) — who is blind in the film — and gets a job as a ranch hand under a fake name, John. In Juno (and the film)’s defense, he went looking for Eve’s father, but when he finds that Eve is there living alone, he just asks for a job. Eve asks no questions, and they start spending a ton of time together. We as the audience are rooting for Juno, but at the end of the day, this is an older guy seeking out a woman living by herself and lying to get close to her, which leaves an uneasy tinge to any subsequent relationship that develops.
“Cowboy” is ultimately an interesting film about a morally grey character that is both engaging and enjoyable to watch. Grubbs plays Juno with commitment and without gratuitous ego. This take on the Western may be set in the South, but it still feels very true to the genre. It’s a redemption story hard to look away from.
