Cry Macho

Cry Macho is a neo-Western road movie, starring, directed and produced by the 91-year-old Clint Eastwood, who plays a former rodeo star hired to rescue his former boss’s son (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico, along with his pet rooster Macho. It is never clear why a nonagenarian would be best suited for the task when there are plenty of cowboys available who do not require regular naps. The premise resembles the 2019 Rambo movie Last Blood – without the blood, opting for slushy drama over genre thrills, the only source of tension being whether Eastwood will be able to get up again each time he sits down.

That said, it is pleasing to see the actor in a surprisingly smiley role, almost like seeing your grandad one more time. He can still ride a horse, throw a punch (just the one) and dance like RuPaul, which is to say he can’t really move. He directs like someone short on time, neglecting to retake shots where one can see punches sail past their intended targets. Gone is the grit that characterised Gran Torino or the intrigue of Richard Jewell, replaced by simplistic storytelling, inane dialogue and reductive Mexican characters who tend to be criminals or gerontophiles. Both the (much younger) women in this film throw themselves at the elderly Eastwood, undeterred by the quite real risk of killing him.

The biggest problem though is the absence of chemistry between the lead and the boy, their relationship reduced to creaky cliché (“You’re kinda growing on me, kid.”), a far cry from the great dynamics found in the similarly set up Slow West. They eventually form a familial bond with a café owner (Natalia Traven) after about 30 minutes in her company, most of which Eastwood sleeps through. And who can blame him? Cry Macho offers little beyond inauthentic drama and incoherent muttering, with only the rooster providing anything close to a hoot. The most interesting part is when our hero says, “This macho thing is overrated… by the time you figure it out, it’s too late,” which sounds like Eastwood expressing regret over once supporting Donald Trump, a sign of his often comical political interventions finally coming home to roost.

Dan Meier

Cry Macho is released nationwide on 12^th November 2021.

Watch the trailer for Cry Macho here: