Review of Cry Macho (2021) by Bertobellamy — 18 Sep 2021

I like the actor Clint Eastwood, but not the director, at least not his most recent films.

I get that 'Cry Macho' is Eastwood meditating about his past as a movie star, but there are so many wrongs in this.

First, as a Mexican — and I'm not offended by what’s been done here—, it's very distracting to look at the setting, which is far from what Mexico looked like in the late 70s. I know this might seem trivial, but you can't take a film seriously if there's no minimal effort to investigate more and try to insert your characters into a more believable environment. Come on, by that time, the country had already hosted the World Cup and the Olympics, and in the film, it looks like there are only cockfights, dust, and people in sarapes in Mexico City and its surroundings.

And we need to talk about those female characters. The evil lady feels like a telenovela villain, and the good one is just an accessory to Mike. In the end, these characterizations don’t support the overall criticism of the “macho” figure in the movie.

The plot is very average, and although I found Mike very charming and funny, it wasn't enough to keep me interested. Let's hope Eastwood has another shot at making a better movie next time.