Cry Macho – A Low-Energy and Low-Stakes Affair

It’s amazing that Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood is still making films at 91 years old but that can sometimes be a good thing and a bad thing. Though judging by the majority of his latest output, it’s been more of the latter. Perhaps he should have hung up his director’s hat sooner, however, that is a discussion for another time now that his latest film which he both directs and stars in, Cry Macho is upon us. Regardless of what most audiences may think of Eastwood’s age, he still has a legion of fans that will likely continue to support him either way. That being said, the decline is clearly there. Fortunately, the film gives Eastwood some help with the rest of the cast seemingly helping him along. Unfortunately, the mediocre material didn’t help anyone for the most part. This didn’t help the pace of the film in any way as the film’s 100+ minute running time will certainly feel longer than that. In the end, the slow pace and the lack of stakes along with the general lack of energy is more conducive to lulling audiences to sleep more than anything else.

Cry Macho, based on the book of the same name by N. Richard Nash, follows Mike Milo (Eastwood), a former rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder who accepted a job on behalf of his former boss Howard (Yoakam) to retrieve his 13-year-old son Raphael (Minett) home from Mexico. Suffice it to say that this task would be easier said than done as it saw cultural and generational clashes but maybe not as many as one would expect as the script didn’t even bother going that far as the film mostly featured Mike wandering his way across Mexico with little to no circumstance alongside Raphael and his rooster Macho. Embarking on a journey that neither expected, the pair made a few stops along the way making for some much needed bonding time where they could mend their cultural and generational differences.  

While Cry Macho does feature some touching moments between Mike and Raphael, they get old very fast as the film moves at a near-glacial pace, favoring those moments rather than actually moving the plot forward arguably as a means to make up for what little was actually there. The lackadaisical and low-energy approach of it all fails to inspire much in the way of excitement which could make the film a hard watch for viewers who fail to connect with Mike and Raphael on a deeper emotional level. Though the film uses derivative plot beats and lazy exposition to create that forced connection, this problem does admittedly become easier to overlook. Mike did still have a presence to him, it was just hard to believe him as the legendary everyman cowboy due to the low-energy way about him. Raphael, however, brought plenty of energy for the two of them but he could only do so much as while Mike’s (and Eastwood’s) age showed, so did Raphael for the wrong reasons. However, the latter could be attributed to the script.

The cinematography and score were decent but the best part of Cry Macho, despite being okay at best, was its performances. Eastwood is too old which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone but his dynamic with Minett was still somewhat compelling to watch in spite of that. He definitely cannot carry a film anymore therefore the rest of the cast did try their best to prop him up and guide him along and this would have almost worked if the material or direction was better as they appeared to be sleepwalking through it. Though Eastwood still had his moments (the best lines were arguably in the film’s trailers), they did not make up for everything else. As mentioned, Minett brought energy as Raphael. However, he could only do so much as he was only given so much to work with, mostly acting as Mike’s translator. The lack of any stakes whatsoever made the film a dull watch overall. Meanwhile, the fact that the best character was a rooster is a testament to the film as a whole.

At the end of the day, Cry Macho was made for Eastwood fans and only Eastwood fans for better or worse and will still find an audience.

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.