Post by Vits on Mar 1, 2019 19:12:21 GMT
If you don't wanna watch Clint Eastwood movies due to the grey palette he's used for a long time, I inform you that he doesn't use it in THE MULE (he hired a different cinematographer), in which he plays EARL STONE, a man who transports drug for a cartel. The movie opens with an on-screen text that says it's 2005, only to almost immediately show a banner for a convention with the year on it. If that wasn't redundant enough, there's another text that says "2017, 12 years later." Also, the dialogue that MARY (EARL's ex-wife) says during their daughter's wedding is very awkward exposition. All of this made me fear that I was going to watch an amateurish movie, something that we shouldn't expect from someone who's directed almost 40 movies. In the end, it's a generic but still competent and at times entertaining production. It would've had better pacing without the subplot of the DEA agents that are after EARL.
5/10
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I also have my doubts about the screentime dedicated to GUSTAVO (the cartel lieutenant) killing LATON (the cartel boss) in order to take over things, seemingly setting him up as the main villain who will play a big role in the climax. He doesn't play any role; he just disappears from the screen. EARL was a bad father, but he gets a redemption, even though he may not have earned it. During the scene of his arrest and trial, I was expecting at least one of his relatives to say "I was wrong to forgive you. I was right before about you being a bad person." Nope. They say they'll visit him in prison as often as they can.
Now that I think about it, there's a lot of ego displayed. There are 2 scenes where EARL has a threeway with younger women, and a lot of people fall under his charms during conversations. There are even moments where he says something offensive and he never gets his ass kicked. I know, I know, this sounds like GRAN TORINO (one of the best movies I've ever seen). However, in that movie, he wasn't playing a character that was meant to be likeable. Here, a black family nicely explain to him that it's not OK to say "negro" anymore, even though A) he was a stranger, B) he hadn't been very nice to them before saying that word and C) he didn't come off as an old man who's too senile to realize what he's saying nor who has been living under a rock and just needs to be taught about the modern world. There's a point where a group of women refer to themselves as "dykes on bikes." They don't seem bothered when EARL calls them "dykes" (in real life, most minorities get angry at others for saying slurs even if they use them) nor that he mistook them for men. Again, something similar happened in GRAN TORINO, but there was a point. The Hmong characters sarcastically insulting themselves showed their awareness of stereotypes and their confidence that they were above that.5/10
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