THE MULE

"The Mule" is Clint Eastwood's 37th feature film as a director and it's a classic. Eastwood was 88 years old when he made it, directing and once again starring, this time playing a 90 year old drugs mule. It's not only one of his very best films, both as a director and as an actor but also one of the best American films of recent years. The cracker script by Nick Schenk is based on a Sam Dolnick New York Times Magazine article about a real 90 year old drugs mule and was, I guess, probably the perfect vehicle for Eastwood, (he's not only roughly the right age but still fit enough to carry it off).

Of course, Eastwood is also probably the last of the great classicists working in American cinema with a body of work as fine as any of the great traditional filmmakers of the thirties and forties and he just seems to get better with the passing of time. His performance in "The Mule" is superb and he's got a great supporting cast including Bradley Cooper, Michael Pena, Laurence Fishburne, Dianne Wiest, Ignacio Serricchio and Andy Garcia. There's nothing remotely ostentatious about his work here; like all of his best films this is simplicity itself. It's also supremely entertaining and often laugh-oud-loud funny and I urge you to see it.