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Post by Viced on Sept 17, 2021 18:54:01 GMT
Solid and very charming at times... but hampered by a weak script. There's no real meat to Clint's character unfortunately... he's sort of just along for the ride without bringing nearly as much to the table as his characters usually do. The film itself is in many ways Stillwater in Mexico instead of France... with much less character depth. The kid is not great, though he's not ruinous either... but the macho speech towards the end (the crux of the film, I assume) would've came across as totally forced and almost random whether he was a good actor or not.
But of course it's wonderful to see Clint on the big screen again... even if The Mule was the perfect swan song for him as an actor and one of his finest performances ever. Watching him bond with the lovely Marta and ingratiating himself into the small Mexican town was really sweet. Probably one of Clint's most easygoing films ever... just wish there was a little more to it.
side note: anyone calling this a western is an absolute crackhead
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Post by countjohn on Sept 22, 2021 1:08:39 GMT
Really wanted to like this but it was pretty rough. Still stand by my comments defending Clint's continued ability to get movies financed, but this was not what I wanted it to be. Wanted this to be another tense film like The Mule that meditated on Clint's life, instead it was more along the lines of 15:17 to Paris, as another poster alluded to in the news thread. Clint is actually in it so it is a bit better by default, but the supporting actors are every bit as awful as the cast there. I don't think Clint is that great with actors so his movies need really good casts as he has often had. He's maybe the best ever at shooting actors to get the most out of a performance, but the actor has to already be giving a good performance on his own to start with which these people were not.
Was patient during the set up in the first act still expecting it to be good, but the last two acts feel like watching he and the kid have the same conversations over and over again while he teaches him to ride horses with the occasional run in with cops. Some of the humor was good like the antics with the rooster and Clint's highly publicized punch (still more believable than De Niro beating up that guy in The Irishman) but that's not enough to carry the movie. It was just an hour and 40 minutes but felt way longer.
Would really be a shame if this is his last film because The Mule would have been a perfect way to go out, one of the best movies of that year and a major reflection on his life and personal mistakes. You'd think in our "OMG toxic masculinity" era such a powerful man would get a lot of credit for holding a mirror up to himself like that when he didn't have to, but of course 90% of the reviews revolved around a use of the word dyke and the movie having Latino drug dealers.
Anyway, 4/10 for this
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Film Socialism
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Post by Film Socialism on Sept 30, 2021 3:12:19 GMT
adored this, his best in years
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Oct 16, 2021 19:29:16 GMT
Thought this was okay. Kind of short on drama, and I agree that it feels longer than it actually is, but it's pleasant enough to where it never felt tedious. The kid wasn't as bad as I feared he would be, but since so much of the film depends on the interaction between him and Clint, this really needed a stronger actor in the role. Kind of clunky at times, like I wish Clint's character's backstory were conveyed in a more organic way at the outset instead of having the boy's father just unload a bunch of exposition in the first couple minutes while scolding him for being late. There were also some odd moments that sort of suggest a particular outcome in the set-up, but don't really lead anywhere - like the cops searching the car for drugs but not finding anything (I thought they were actually going to find some that didn't belong to them, which would have added an interesting complication). And when the father's ulterior motives are revealed, I thought it was going to end with kid not going back to his father after all and going off on his own after crossing the border, but still leaving a life of crime. I guess this wouldn't be the worst thing to end with if it ends up being Clint's last film role, but yeah The Mule would have been a better, more thoughtful way to go out.
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Post by JangoB on Jun 27, 2024 12:22:59 GMT
I appreciated the easygoing hangout nature of the film and its refusal to become plot-driven whenever such opportunities presented themselves... but while all of that is fine in theory, in practice I just didn't feel as invested in the two characters' activities as I wanted to be. Which, for a hangoug movie, is a problem. I think there are several reasons for that:
- As fine as he is in the film, Clint is just too damn old for the part which is why it occasionally feels less like a good time with a good character and more like being stuck with your great-grandpa while he's fixing jukeboxes and taking naps and all that...
- ...which maybe could've worked had he had a better screen partner. A buddy movie is all about the chemistry between the guys or gals at the centre of the story, and I didn't really feel the connection between Eastwood and the kid. Well, I kinda felt it on Eastwood's part because he's a good actor. The kid is, unfortunately, quite horrendous.
- I suspect the movie would've been better if they got to that small town sooner and if their experience there was developed more thoroughly. For instance, there's potential for a romantic storyline between the kid and one of Marta's granddaughters but the only times we see them talk are within montages and transitions and all that. We never know what they talk about, what they're feeling, how they become closer. This entire movie should've been about stuff like that but Clint deals with those things in his usual "let's get this shot and get out of here" manner which doesn't help you get more engaged in the characters or their situation at all. What could've had a real impact is depicted in fleeting moments.
- Some of the writing is rather iffy. For some reason I was especially flabbergasted by how clumsily the father's real intentions were revealed.
So yeah, all of that prevented me from enjoying the film the way I wanted to. There are certainly good things about it too but the balance is off. So I'm kind of glad it won't be Eastwood's swan song. Let's just hope The Rural Juror #2 lives up to at least the moderate expectations.
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