Cry Macho – Film Review

A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder named Mike Milo (Clint Eastwood), in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mum. Crossing rural Mexico on their back way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.

There is simply no denying that Clint Eastwood is one of the most legendary forces in the history of cinema. Not only has he directed some seriously masterful films such as Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby, but he has also starred in quite a massive amount of highly successful and beloved staples in cinema such as Dirty Harty and the Man with No Name trilogy of Westerns.

His last directorial effort, Richard Jewell, was met with quite a lot of critical acclaim but, The 15:17 to Paris was almost universally regarded as one of the worst films of Eastwood’s entire career. Usually, his films are quite special to watch with some exceptions along the way, and sadly Cry Macho is one of those exceptions. I can understand why Eastwood wanted to do this movie. It’s a very stripped-down and laid-back approach to the Western drama – there are essentially zero “action” sequences present – but that doesn’t mean it has to be so boring.

Eastwood definitely feels more at home in the Western genre more than anything else and it definitely does show here. Throughout the entire film, he feels so calmed and relaxed in a role that some may not have expected to see him do. We all know him from the aforementioned Man with No Name trilogy as being a total mysterious badass but here, as Mike Milo, he essentially plays a washed-up rodeo star who spends his days simply basking in the fact that it’s a brand new day and life has many surprises in store.

But when he meets the young boy Rafo, his life starts to slowly change. He finally feels as though he has a purpose in this world and he will do whatever it takes to get the kid to his father. Sounds like it would be quite the thrilling journey, right? Well, sadly, it’s not. Almost the entirety of Cry Macho is spent focusing on the little things. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when movies take moments to breathe for a minute.

One of my favorite examples of this in recent years is with Patty Jenkins‘ first Wonder Woman film. It’s a big-budget Hollywood superhero film so of course, you can expect to see a gigantic explosive action extravaganza, and a lot of the movie is Diana Prince and Steve Trevor trying to save the world from imminent doom but their journey simply cannot be completed in one day or even two for that matter. In one of the most beautiful scenes in the film, Diana and Steve slow-dance outside while snow begins to fall, and they simply bask in each other’s company.

This is almost what the entirety of Cry Macho is. It’s all moments to breathe. There is almost never a scene where the film gets intense and you feel like the story is picking up pace and could potentially go somewhere exciting. It’s an incredibly boring movie with nothing new or exciting to say whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it has almost the exact same story as Paul Greengrass‘ News of the World which was released in December of 2020.

Eastwood is excellent in the film and he never once feels like he is acting. His on-screen presence is simply one of the best you’ll ever see. There’s something so undeniably charming about watching Eastwood just do day-to-day activities and it’s clear that he is incredibly experienced and it’s also evident that he feels at home on any set he’s working on. Eduardo Minett is also quite great for a child actor here in the role of Rafo who is an inquisitive young boy with a bunch of dreams and aspirations. Obviously, he is outshined by Eastwood here but Minett is certainly talented. And Dwight Yoakam gets a small but entertaining role here as Howard Polk, Rafo’s son.

So the performances all across the board are quite great. The cinematography by Ben Davis is impressive and it’s not one of the worst movies of the year. Nothing about it made me legitimately mad. It was just tediously boring. At this rate, it’s hard to say if Eastwood is planning to make more movies but I can only hope he does because it sure would be disappointing to have a movie as boring as Cry Macho be his swan song.