Cry Macho (In Theaters and on HBOMax, Sept. 17)
Clint Eastwood portrays Mike Milo, a former Texas rodeo star, lately a rodeo-stadium cowhand. Following Mike’s umpteenth injury, his boss (Dwight Yoakam) persuades Mike to retrieve the man’s son (Eduardo Minett) from Mexico, where the youth has joined a criminal cockfighting circuit. Having wrangled the teen into his vehicle (along with the lad’s rooster, Macho), for a road trip to Texas, Milo does his best to straighten out his rebellious charge.
Author N. Richard Nash wrote this screenplay in the 1970s. It was twice rejected by 20th Century Fox, prompting Nash to refashion it as a novel, published in 1975. Lauded by critics, in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to play the lead onscreen, but the production was sidelined after Arnie’s California gubernatorial election. Once out of office, Arnold’s extra-marital child was revealed and the production was cancelled.
The adaptation was reinvigorated after Eastwood agreed to direct, star and produce. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor recalls the difficult task of filming scenes with the rooster Macho, played by 11 birds. The 90-year-old also discloses that he saddles up for the first time on film since 1992’s Unforgiven. Nine decades strong, this senior still crows. (Lisa Miller)
The Nowhere Inn (Limited Theatrical release and AppleTV, Sept. 17)
This “fictional documentary” stars singer-songwriter, St. Vincent as popstar Annie Clark, along with St. Vincent’s real-life friend, musician Carrie Brownstein. The women co-wrote the screenplay about a popstar asking her best friend (played by Brownstein) to make a documentary showcasing both the popstar’s professional and personal life. With Clark’s promise of no-holds-barred the idea sounds fab, but as the days wear on, Brownstein realizes Clark is fairly dull. Even Clark’s bandmates struggle to find anything interesting about her. The cheeky film asks what our expectations of a celebrity are as Clark becomes ever-more manipulative and controlling of the documentary she gifted to her friend. Fictional in many regards, the movie still manages to promote Clark’s songs from her latest album. Sneaky that! (Lisa Miller)
Nuclear Nightmares (Corinth Films DVD)
Peter Ustinov narrates this 1980 film in Shakespearean tones as he tours the front lines of the Cold War, “that ugly rift,” cutting across Germany. The documentary is a period piece, a well-made editorial about the “dismal task” facing NATO is the Soviets invaded Western Europe—responding with a nuclear counterattack. No one imagined in 1980 that only nine years later the Soviet Bloc collapsed. Nuclear Nightmares is a page out of history and yet, the nuclear problem has in some ways become more insidious with the Bomb in the hands of unstable nations with ambitious dictators. Nuclear terrorism? (David Luhrssen)
“The Sergio Martino Collection” (Arrow Video Blu-ray)
Sexual psycho killing is a motif in the trio of films collected in this box set. Italian director Sergio Martino’s films are filled with murderers wielding knifes or hooks—his dubious characters often turn up in black leather or wear sunglasses during evening downpours. Trash flirts with art. His best moments, especially during The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale (1971), show a painterly eye for color and composition. Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) is an orgiastic bloodbath “freely adapted” from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.” (David Luhrssen)
