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Movie Review: Cry Macho

Mike Tyrkus

It is easy to see what may have drawn Clint Eastwood to the novel, Cry Macho, by N. Richard Nash. Like much of the filmmaker’s more recent work, this is the tale of the redemption of someone that may have been a hopelessly lost soul were it not for the journey that unfolds throughout the film as well as the companion – or, in this case, companions – who travel with him along the way.

Eastwood plays Mike Milo, a one-time successful horse breeder and even further removed rodeo star, who takes a job out of desperation from his ex-boss (Dwight Yoakam) to retrieve the man’s young son (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico. This is, of course, not the simple trip to pick up the boy and head back across the border job as the boy’s mother dispatches her own violence-inclined henchmen to thwart the boy’s escape with Milo – and the boy’s fighting rooster named Macho – to Texas. Along the way, the two form an unlikely bond as they make their way across the backroads of Mexico towards what they expect will be a better life.

Clint Eastwood in “Cry Macho.” Photo by CLAIRE FOLGER – © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As he did in films like The Mule (2018) and Gran Torino (2008), Eastwood effortlessly embodies the man seeking redemption for past sins, just trying to do one last thing the proper way. His costar, Minett is equal to the task and holds his own against the stalwart presence that the director casts across the production. Even the sudden appearance of a love interest for Milo in the form of friendly café owner Marta (Natalia Traven) does nothing to derail the intensity of the hero’s journey that the two travelers are undertaking, it only adds to it.

Cinematographer Ben Davis does a fine job of creating the atmosphere of a western despite being confined to stops along the side of the road and only the occasional tableau such as the local tavern wherein the heroes meet Marta. His work accentuates the production design of Ronald R. Reiss which also gives the feeling of a western while not strictly becoming one outright.

For fans of the genre, there is plenty to enjoy here and for those simply looking for a well-told story featuring complex characters that undergo an actual cathartic journey and find themselves all the better for it, then Cry Macho may just be one of the best films of the year.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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