Barrett Brief Movie Review – Cry Macho! And Let Slip The Rooster Of Bore

Barrett Brief Movie Review – Cry Macho! And Let Slip The Rooster Of Bore

Summary: A one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder takes a job to bring a man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. On their journey, the horseman finds redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.

Genre: Drama, Thriller, Western

Clint Eastwood is a legend. The man has so many screen credits to his name that it would be a waste of time to run them off. That kind of clout allows him some leeway with Warner Bros, a studio desperate to keep up with Disney/Marvel (who is the king of cinema at the current moment). This leeway manifest itself in the form of something like Cry Macho, a seemingly aimless film that really has no point. It starts one way and then shifts for no reason to a completely different ending. Eastwood’s star power still shines, even at age 91, and aside from the titular rooster, the rest of the cast just can’t seem to make a middling script work. 

A Truly Slow Burn 

So Mike Milo (Eastwood) is a very past his prime rodeo star. His former boss Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam), who fired him a year prior, shows up and says “hey, go get my kid in Mexico” and Milo is like “fine”. Because reasons. Now Eastwood is in Mexico City and runs into Yoakam ex, Leta (Fernanda Urrejola) who says their son is a trouble maker and if Milo can find him he can take him back to his father. So of course Eastwood finds him in about 10 seconds. Because. After a brief conversation, Rafo (Eduardo Minett) decides he wants to go see his dad because had a picture of him when he was a baby and he wants to be a cowboy. Rafo has a rooster that he enrolls in cock fights name Macho. Macho is probably the best character in the film (I’ll get to that later). Milo goes back to Leta to tells her he found her kid. Leta, apparently gets excited by this, and attempts to seduce a 91 year old man. When he turns her down, she tells him to get out or she will have him imprisoned. Oh, and Rafo sneaks into the back of Milo’s truck. While on their way back, through a series of wacky hijinks they end up in this little Mexican town. The pair ends up taking shelter in a shrine to Our Lady Of Guadalupe. While in town Milo runs into Marta (Natalia Traven) who instantly falls in love with him. Over the course of maybe three days, Milo teaches Rafo every life lesson possible and courts Marta, who is charitable 30 years his younger. Eventually the pair make it to the Texas border and Rafo walks right over (it is set in 1980) and Milo goes back to be with Marta, where he will at most live 2 years with her before he dies (speculation). That’s it. 

 The Cast

Eastwood is the last of the true Hollywood superstars. Even at 91, he still has the presence to carry every scene he is in, regardless of the lack of chemistry he has with anyone besides the rooster Macho. Macho is honestly the best character. He has the best chemistry with Eastwood, gets all the jokes and saves the day at the end. I honestly would have preferred a movie with just the rooster with Eastwood narrating. Everyone else is just there. Eduardo Minett performance is fine, some his lines are delivered with 0.0 emotion and just sounded like a 50 year guy wrote the line. Dwight Yoakam exists in this movie, so good for him. I do feel bad for Fernanda Urrejola, who has to try and sell instantaneous attraction to Eastwood and uncomfortably tries to seduce him (I know its suppose to be uncomfortable, but we could have had other ways to get to the point of the scene). Natalia Traven is sweet and caring, but I just rolled my eyes at the thought of this woman being enthralled with a 91 dude. Call me jaded, I ain’t buying it and nothing they did on screen changed my mind.

Plot & Pacing

I will sum up the pacing in this film. Eastwood took a nap midway through the film. So did I.  

The plot was not well fleshed out, the initial story (Rafo) gets chucked halfway through so Eastwood can pretend to have a women 30 years young swoon over him. 

Technical notes

Eastwood is a very good director. This was very average for a man of his talent. 

Overall 

Cry Macho is a film that wouldn’t see the light of day without Eastwood. Thin plot, boring characters leaves makes you want to drop it off in the middle of the desert. 

Score:

 1 1/2 out of 4 Briefcases