DOC NYC Review: “Space Cowboy”

Space Cowboy (Bryce Leavitt/Marah Strauch, 2024) 4 out of 5 stars

Sometimes, boys with toys grow up to be men with even larger toys. In the new documentary Space Cowboy, from directors Bryce Leavitt and Marah Strauch (Sunshine Superman), we meet one such lucky gent, Joe Jennings, who has built a life throwing large objects out of airplanes and skydiving after them with a head-mounted camera to film their descent. It’s exciting stuff, and also quite dangerous.

Not all is pure joy, however. The documentary presents a comprehensive biography of its subject, from his early days as a high-school outcast, then his first leaps into the air, followed by triumph and tragedy, and the long and successful career since, experienced in tandem with his ongoing struggles with depression. There are highs and lows aplenty, the details coming together to form the portrait of a fascinating individual.

The dramatic through line to which we return, time and again, is Jennings’ attempt to outfit a car with the perfect adjustments so it will fall from the sky without spinning out of control. He hopes to then place four men inside it and thereby capture the wild footage that results. It neither looks easy nor is, in fact, easy.

Jennings only took to acrobatic skydiving in 1990, in his late twenties. He quickly gravitated to the cinematic side of things, partnering with skysurfer Rob Harris, with whom he would win championships at the ESPN X Games. Sadly, Harris died in 1995 while filming a Mountain Dew spot, attempting to capitalize on their achievements. It’s a very risky sport. French pioneer Patrick de Gayardon would also die, in 1998. Both men are featured here.

But Jennings has soldiered on, running a business where he films commercials, planning and executing movie stunts, and raising a family of two boys with his wife, Sissy. Throughout the film, he discusses his mental health, that of his children, and his obsession with staging aerial exploits with a variety of stuff tumbling downwards from the heavens. Those images, along with the earlier skysurfing archival material, are impressive to behold.

Space Cowboy ends up telling an inspiring tale of how Jennings has constructed a dream existence, arriving at it by chance and then weathering disasters that would stop most people from continuing. Despite the promise of the title, he is an almost exceedingly responsible person, leaving nothing to chance. With the support of Sissy—and now his sons—and an array of mentors and colleagues, he forges ahead, into the air and beyond, making magic as he goes.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Christopher Llewellyn Reed is a film critic, filmmaker, and educator, as well as Film Festival Today's Editor. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.