As the director and star of “Cry Macho,” in theaters and on HBO Max, Clint Eastwood sends himself on a picaresque journey through rural Mexico in 1979. He plays Mike Milo, a washed-up rodeo star who accepts a job from his former boss: Go to Mexico City, rescue the man’s supposedly wild-spirited young son from the clutches of his abusive mother, and bring him back to Texas. Milo is a cowboy of many parts—a horseman (it’s great to see Mr. Eastwood back in the saddle at age 91); a horse whisperer; a woman whisperer (more about that in a bit); an adequate conversationalist in sign language; and a grizzled Dr. Dolittle who ministers as best he can to sick animals. Confronted by a terminally decrepit dog, Milo tells its owner, “I don’t know how to cure old.” Yet the film, for all its endearing oddities, suggests that old doesn’t need to be cured, only worked through with as much grace and equanimity as possible.
And as much verve as available. Most of that is supplied not by Mike, who meters out his emotions cautiously, in the usual Eastwood way, but by Marta (Natalia Traven), the widowed proprietor of a small-town cantina. She warms Mike’s heart, which has been chilled by grief and adversity, and lights up every moment she’s on screen. (He, in turn, charms one of her grandchildren, who is deaf.) The wayward son, Rafo Polk (Eduardo Minett), proves to be tender, rather than wild, his initial hostility notwithstanding. At age 13 he’s a lost soul, just like Mike, and wants nothing more than the love of his estranged father, Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam). Macho is the name of Rafo’s rooster, who could have been a cockfight contender; he squawks every now and then and gets a pivotal peck at the action during the trio’s long and dangerous trip back to the U.S. border.