“Cowboys”, and Change Within the Western

On Butch Cassidy and the Transgender Kid

It’s amazing the films that fall into your lap by chance. Back in April, a film by the name of Cowboys was put onto my Twitter feed by happenstance. I read through the linked IndieWire article, found myself interested, and immediately added it to my watchlist.

I’ve been trying to highlight transgender film for a few years now, be that actors, directors, or screenwriters. And I’ll watch almost anything, really, because of how sparse transgender representation is spread through mainstream Hollywood. So it was frankly not a matter of if I was going to watch Cowboys, but when.

Cowboys is not due for a wide release until sometime in December of 2020, but until then, it’s still making some festival rounds, as festivals have gone completely online as a result of COVID. Unfortunately, most of these festivals require you to still be within the state or country it was originally set to take place in.

Luckily enough for me, Canada’s Inside Out festival is one of the few I could find that was selling limited digital access to countless new queer films, and for only $11 (and maybe the use of a VPN), I got to watch Cowboys a few months earlier than I would have. That means I get to hype it up to you the reader, who might not have heard of it…