Film Review - The Mule (15)

Don't do what I did. I put work in front of family.

A decade ago Clint Eastwood said it. He downright insisted he was hanging up his acting spurs and that Gran Torino would be his final turn in front of the camera. A perfect swansong too - humorous, elegiac, tragic, humane... For ten whole years he held to his plan, taking on directing jobs only. But now here he is as 90-year-old Earl Stone in The Mule, saying he couldn't find anyone else old enough and still alive to play the role. Fair enough - the film's a rattling good yarn after all and quite in step with the Clint legacy.

Written by Nick Schenk, Eastwood's collaborator on Gran Torino, The Mule takes its inspiration from a New York Times Magazine article concerning an elderly drug mule working for a Mexican cartel. The film's Earl is a horticulturalist and one-time travelling salesman, who's a much bigger hit with his wider social circle than with the family he neglected over decades. Faced with his house's foreclosure at the same time as his granddaughter's wedding, he takes a one-off driving delivery job, no questions asked, for an anonymous party. The work turns regular, even when the naive Earl confirms his suspicions as to what he's actually transporting. But soon the investigations of a hot-shot new DEA agent (Bradley Cooper) threaten to complicate matters for elderly drug-runner known as 'El Tata'.

 

I'll admit I'm a sucker for this movie. I've been a Clint Eastwood fan for more years than I care to specify, so it's great to see him in action one more time - leaner and more stooped than ever before, but with that knotty strength barely diminished and his screen presence totally intact. His charisma lends itself to Earl - a game old roue and lover of life, who engages your sympathy for all his glaring personality flaws. Clint's eye as a director is functioning well too, so that he's created a solid road movie and understated thriller, one that makes the most of its rural Illinois backdrops. Earl's story unfolds in leisurely style, but you're never less than invested in the old reprobate's progress. Scenes where he spars with his bemused and vastly younger criminal associates are a particular joy, though one where he enjoys the fruits of his illegal labours with nubile young company is - well - unnecessary.

 

Claims that the film is just too unhurried have justification. The scenes with Cooper, his partner (Michael Pena) and boss (Laurence Fishburne) move the plot along, but lack any kind of dramatic bite. It's a serious shame to have actors of this calibre on board, when the screenplay gives their dialogue no spark whatsoever. Dianne Wiest fares better as Earl's ex-wife Mary (as with Clint it's great to see the one-time Woody Allen regular back in the movies); the scenes between them dice with over-sentimentality, but get away with it - just.

The Mule really revs up when Earl is on the road, singing along to olde tyme radio songs like he's on vacation rather than transporting sizeable quantities of illegal drugs. It's like writer Schenk came into his own when crafting the elderly reprobate's exploits, including the latter stages when events take a darker turn. The result is a likeable film which touches on themes of mortality and regret to moving effect, while still holding out hope for a rambunctious, life-embracing old-age. And it's buoyed up by that additional, unexpected turn by Eastwood. Maybe this one will really be his last. You know, I kind of hope not.

Gut Reaction: I smiled, a lot, that in his upper eighties Clint can still own it like he did back in the Josey Wales days. 

Memorable Moment: Oh-oh. Sniffer dog...

Ed's Verdict: 6.5/10. While The Mule doesn't have the dramatic and thematic weight as Gran Torino, it's still an enjoyably tall tale. And did I mention Clint Eastwood is terrific?

Film Review - A Star is Born (15)

You don't tell the truth out there, you're f**ked. 

Some stories bear retelling. The original A Star is Born was released in 1937 and has now been remade three times, each version following markedly similar plot beats, while reworking the premise for a new era. It's a simple tale - one that simultaneously celebrates and critiques the entertainment industry, and one to which numerous generations can clearly relate. All that's required is an imaginative repackaging and some contemporary resonance. Bradley Cooper's 2018 version has both, with the formidable addition of Lady Gaga and her stunning vocals.

Cooper is Jackson Maine, a straggle-haired and hard-drinking country-rocker riding out the latter days of his fame. Gaga is Ally, a singer and song-writer whose talent, however striking, has been passed over by numerous shallow music executives. Their chance meeting is fateful in more ways than one. The connection between them, fuelled by a love of music and stage performance, sparks an intense romance along with Ally's career in the business. But Jackson's inner demons (which are legion) and the forces shaping Ally's musical future threaten to rip them apart, heartfelt love notwithstanding.

There's an undoubted power in the basic story - a love affair between two performers whose career trajectories are moving swiftly in opposite directions. First-time director Cooper does much to invigorate the material, giving it a raw sense of reality throughout and never letting things topple too far into melodrama. These characters are believable, whether in the bravura musical sequences or the quieter domestic moments. The first act takes its time to establish the central relationship, before sweeping us on an edgy but exhilarating journey with these two, much of it filtered through Jackson's faltering perception. It's all very 2018 as well - contemporary music, Youtube and the slick product-packaging of the modern recording industry all grounding a well-worn narrative in the now.

But it's the performances that you'll remember. Cooper is a growling, shambling version of himself, but he exudes boozy charisma. He also proves one hell of a country-blues performer, like he's been singing and playing all his life. Gaga meanwhile gives a strikingly truthful portrayal of Ally, divested as she is of her real-life chutzpah and all the crazy costumes that go with it. There's a simplicity and humility to her waitress-turned-singer, which result in the best kind of X-Factor chills when she cuts loose in front of a microphone. Put these two individuals together and there's chemistry - both on-stage and off - to rival that of Joaquin Phoenix and Reece Witherspoon in Walk the Line. Great too to see the magnificent Sam Elliott in a key role - strong, compassionate and with a voice that could now grate parmesan really fine.

As for the music, it turns the movie into this year's Greatest Showman - less family-friendly for sure, but full of memorable tunes and glorious performance moments, which compliment rather than distract from the drama. These are songs that (with one deliberate exception) come from the gut, conveying all the passion, pain and internal conflict of the leads. A Star is Born 2018 becomes much more than another retelling of the classic story. It's a modern fable of stardom - its glories and its pitfalls - and of the toll that fame threatens to take on two people's love for each other. And it works because it's told - on every level - in such an utterly convincing way.

Gut Reaction: A sense of sublime melancholy rather than some manipulated sob-fest. Two moments - Ally's first duet with Jackson and a night at the Emmys - got to me for very different reasons.

Where Are the Women?: Gaga exists in a very blokey world here, perhaps a commentary on how rock is still a resistantly male environment.

Ed's Verdict: 8.5/10. Cooper's triple-role (co-writer/director/co-star) provides a searing authenticity throughout, as does Gaga's star turn. We knew he could act and she could sing. Turns out the reverse is also true.