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Cry Macho

100 Movies of 2021

Cry Macho

2021

Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood, Eduardo Minett, Natalia Traven, Horacio García Rojas ...

5.2

8,673

Drama A onetime rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder, in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. Crossing rural Mexico on their back way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"Eastwood remains a filmmaker of ageless diverting classicism, but this road movie is a minor affair"	NEU
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	Clint Eastwood has often shown a weakness for corn, usually tempered by the unfussy efficiency of his direction (...) But in Cry Macho, the corn is inescapable"	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"The veteran star’s 39th feature as a director works to his strengths both in front of and behind the camera, although this comfy, melancholy drama lacks the spark of his best pictures."	NEU
United States	Glenn Heath Jr. The Film Stage	"After all the gun-slinging, killing, revenge, tragedy, comedy, unrequited love, and more, Eastwood's outlook on humanity has crystalized into something singularly calm and hopeful"	POS
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"The simplicity of the story Eastwood is telling would seem to suit his unvarnished, unfussy style, though frankly, a bit more fuss wouldn’t have gone awry"	NEU
United States	Pete Hammond Deadline	"I just sat back and smiled watching this film, knowing I was still in the hands of a complete filmmaking pro who doesn’t resort to cheap tricks or tired clichés."	POS
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"What could have been an engaging, if simple, tale becomes strangely lifeless (...) What’s most surprising about some of Eastwood’s later films is their inefficient storytelling (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"Maybe it’s true that it’s never too late to find a new home. But in some ways, it feels like “Cry Macho” has missed the bus (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Joe Morgenstern The Wall Street Journal	"The film suggests that old doesn’t need to be cured, only worked through with as much grace and equanimity as possible (...) It’s a slow-release dose of sincere feelings"	POS
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"What a shame that [it] hits the brick wall of predictability so early on (...) 'Cry Macho' is far from classic Eastwood. But Eastwood is classic in every sense of the word"	NEU
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"A Gentle Western About Male Strength (...) The 11 roosters who play Macho collectively deliver one of the finest chicken performances this side of 'Stroszek'"	POS
United States	Robert Abele The Wrap	"[It] isn’t top-drawer Eastwood. But it’s no washout either. If it were to close out his career, it might feel like a disappointment"	NEU
United States	Glenn Kenny rogerebert.com	"The simple sincerity about what’s worthwhile in life is the movie’s reason for being. Nothing more and nothing less (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Bilge Ebiri Vulture	"Approaching twilight, Eastwood has stripped everything down to its essentials. The picture doesn’t always work, but it works when it has to."	NEU
United States	Jacob Oller Paste Magazine	"It is a bad movie (...) But in its oddity, it can be revealing—maybe in specific about its filmmaker, but definitely in general about certain white American men of a particular generation"."	NEG
United States	Ignatiy Vishnevetsky AV Club	"The fact is that, as a movie, Cry Macho is slow and sometimes dull. But as a statement by Hollywood’s oldest leading man and working director, it offers its share of gleaming low-key insights."	NEU
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"A deep cut for the die-hards, a hangout movie with nothing much to prove and just enough to say, with a pleasing score and some lovely desert scenery. If the old man’s driving, my advice is to get in and enjoy the ride"	POS
United States	Chuck Bowen Slant	"'Cry Macho' captures the nourishing wonder of fable-spinning [and] the terror of happiness: the possibility that it cannot last (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Sara Stewart New York Post	"Clint Eastwood's most charming movie in years (...) He directs, famously, with ruthless efficiency (...) 'Cry Macho' is gentle at its core (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Stephanie Zacharek Time	"The picture is so purely Eastwood —with all the good and bad that implies— it’s as if it had been drawn from his veins"	POS
United States	Richard Brody The New Yorker	"'Cry Macho' proves to be sharply ironic (...) Eastwood relies on this combination of absurdity and melodrama to evoke hidden torments along with apparent glories, to suggest the grim struggles from which wisdom emerges"	POS
Canada	Aparita Bhandari The Globe and Mail	"On the one hand, you gotta give it to the man. He’s got grit. But surely, there are other cowboys whose stories are just as worth telling"	POS
United States	Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune	"[It] may be fond and foolish in equal measure, but it has a few grace notes to remember [and] a fine gallery of images of Eastwood in silhouette, at dusk, against a big sky, alone with his thoughts (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Josh Spiegel SlashFilm	"'Unforgiven' felt like Eastwood closing the book on his Western era. 'Cry Macho' is more of a slow-paced postscript to that book, but a surprisingly well-worn and welcome postscript nonetheless (…) Rating: ★★★★★★ (out of 10)"	POS
United States	K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone	"In a moral universe so keenly prescribed as this, the goodness we see in 'Cry Macho' —goodness that seems to come with age or after great sacrifice— resounds even as the movie feels shaky"	POS
United States	Matt Fowler IGN	"'Cry Macho' has spare moments of charm and tranquility (...) Even if the end message of the film was hokey, it should still have a message. Instead, it leaves us hanging and feeling a bit like our time was wasted"	NEG
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"The sweet-natured and occasionally moving but surprisingly stiff and slight 'Cry Macho' is most likely destined to be remembered as one of Eastwood's lesser works (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
Canada	Susan Leighton Screen Anarchy	"It becomes more than a cliched logline (...) Is this Clint Eastwood's best film to date? No, but it is the most heartfelt"	POS
United States	Brian Lowry CNN	"'Cry Macho' is a weak addition to Clint Eastwood's 50-year filmography (...) An understated, uneventful slog of a movie (...) A woefully weak script (...) [It] won't make anyone's day"	NEG
United Kingdom	James White Empire	"Eastwood's back with a look at manliness filtered through the wisdom of aging. It makes the odd stultifying stop and falls into several cliché potholes, yet 'Cry Macho' ultimately finds its way (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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