Review: Clint Eastwood, at 91, still delivers in "Cry Macho," an odd movie that aims to dismantle movie tropes about masculinity

Confession time: I never saw Clint Eastwood’s 2018 drama “The Mule,” in which Eastwood directed and starred as an elderly man who became a drug-runner for Mexican cartels — and my knowledge of “The Mule” comes solely from the review comedians John Mulaney and Pete Davidson gave it on  “Saturday Night Live,” where they marveled at “the most bananas movie” ever made.

With that much knowledge, I feel fairly safe in declaring Eastwood’s newest movie, “Cry Macho,” a somewhat tamer but still offbeat movie, as something of a spiritual sequel to “The Mule” — in that it’s another story of an old man crossing into Mexico to bring something back and find some personal redemption along the way.

Eastwood plays Mike Milo, who long ago was a rodeo star, until a bronco landed on him and broke his back. Years later — 1979, to be exact — he’s working as a Texas horse trainer, until his boss, Howard (Dwight Yoakam), fires him for drunkenness and unreliability.

A year later, Howard returns to Mike’s life, with a job offer: He wants Mike to cross the border, drive to Mexico City, and retrieve Howard’s 13-year-old son, Rafa (Eduardo Minett), from the clutches of his Howard’s ex-wife, Leta (Fernanda Urrejola), who is abusing Rafa — at least, that’s the way Howard tells it.

When Mike gets to Mexico City, and Leta’s mansion, he finds the situation is more complicated. Leta, who lives in a mansion with his bodyguard, has no idea where Rafa is, but suspects he may be trying to compete in cockfighting. Sure enough, Mike finds Rafa in the poor part of town, preparing to have his rooster — called Macho, which Rafa says means “strength” — battle in a cockfight.

After dodging a police raid, Mike takes the reluctant Rafa under his wing. This is where the bulk of the script — credited by Nick Schenk (who wrote “The Mule”) and N. Richard Nash, on whose 1975 novel the film is based — sets up shop. Mike, Rafa and Macho hit the road toward the Texas border. Sometimes they take the back roads, to avoid Leta’s bodyguards and the Federales she’s called in to find Rafa. For awhile, they hole up in a small town, where Mike teaches Rafa about training horses, and about how the concept of being “macho” is a limited view of masculinity. Also in this town, Mike — whose wife and son died years earlier — kicks up a little romance with Marta (Natalia Traven), a widow who runs the cantina and looks after her four granddaughters.

So the story is a little out there, and some of the plot points make no sense when held up to scrutiny, but there’s something charming and tender in Eastwood’s telling of it. At 91, Eastwood doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody, and he can make any shaggy dog story he wants, and if he wants to direct himself into a romance at his age, who’s going to stop him.

Eastwood’s direction is smooth and economical, almost never a wasted moment or shot — and cinematographer Ben Davis (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Captain Marvel”) brings a calm beauty to the film. The weakness may be in the script, which takes a few pedestrian shortcuts as it imparts its lessons about masculinity and its limitations.

Eastwood gives a solid performance in “Cry Macho,” still charismatic even when he’s slightly hunched over by his age. He seems to understand that the myth of the West probably dies with Mike — but until that happens, he’s willing to impart what he knows to future generations.

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‘Cry Macho’

★★★

Opens Friday, September 17, in theaters, and streaming on HBO Max. Rated PG-13 for language and thematic elements. Running time: 104 minutes.