The Mule is the first acting role from Clint Eastwood in over six years, and his first lead role since 2008’s Gran Torino. This Eastwood installment is much more akin to Blood Work, Changeling, and 15:17 to Paris than his more prominent films like American Sniper, Million Dollar Baby, and Unforgiven.

Eastwood plays Earl Stone, a Korean war veteran who has a family but might as well have none because they all hate him except for his 20-something granddaughter (played by Taissa Farmiga, Vera’s younger sister). When being chased out of a family event by his ex-wife (Dianne Wiest), a family friend runs after him to offer him a job after he overhears he has driven across the country with a perfect driving record. Stone takes the job, not understanding what he has gotten into, not knowing (the first run or two at least) he was running drugs for the Mexican cartel through Michigan to Chicago and being paid handsomely for it. Over a ten-year period, he broke several cartel records (apparently they keep track because he is told this from his fellow coworkers frequently, but if he was given a trophy, it must have been off-screen). Soon, an ambitious up-and-coming DEA agent (Bradley Cooper, collaborating with Eastwood again for the first time since American Sniper) starts to build a case and begins to track the infamous drug mule that he can’t seem to catch.

Eastwood’s Stone is based on the true story of Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran who became a drug mule in his 80’s and lasted almost ten years, transporting over 3 million dollars’ worth of cocaine throughout his courier career. He was also a world-renowned Horticulturist for creating new breeds of flower. He was the perfect beard, and no one would suspect him.

The Mule is an interesting story, but far too much time is wasted on trying to humanize the character, to make the audience care about the outcome. Right when the story begins to build any suspense or tension, it turns back to Stone trying to reconnect with his family, and the film begins to simmer down, rather than boil, while trying to be a family-friendly drug mule film by the end.

If you like Eastwood, you might like the film and even find his performance charming. When watching The Mule, however, I watched him continually make politically-incorrect joke after politically-incorrect joke, and I couldn’t help but think, have we not gotten past the time of using the excuse of “he is an old man and is a product of his time” as justification for insensitive comments and jokes as comic relief? The chuckles throughout the theatre during these scenes was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Ultraviolet Season 2 (Netflix) review: A step down from its predecessor

This review of Ultraviolet Season 2 (Netflix) is spoiler-free. You can check out our thoughts on the first season by clicking these words.

I managed to annoy a surprising number of people by slagging off the first season of Netflix’s Ultraviolet, a show with a history more interesting than its cases. Created by Wendy West and originally intended as a show for Fox in the U.S., it moved to Polish network AXN with a game cast of local actors and then whipped up a whirlwind after being picked up by the streaming giant. The premise of internet-savvy amateur sleuths doing the police’s job for them obviously appealed to binge-watchers — not exactly a mystery, I suppose — and thus, we have a 12-episode follow-up in Ultraviolet Season 2.

It wasn’t promising to learn that the second season enjoyed a sharp decline in ratings in its native country, and it wasn’t surprising to learn why: This sophomore outing is notably a step down from its predecessor, with a casting switcheroo sapping some engaging chemistry from the lead lineup and an obviously deteriorating sense of energy and imagination. It will still have enough leftover charm to satisfy the most ardent supporters of the first season, and it retains the themes of law enforcement incompetence and the inherent dangers of being related in any way to heroine Ola (Marta Nieradkiewicz).

Ultraviolet Season 2 moves away from Ola somewhat with a broader focus that achieves mixed results; on the one hand fleshing out supporting characters and their attendant stories but on the other reminding everyone that Nieradkiewicz is easily the best thing about this show. It isn’t awful but, like the first season, even though I was seemingly the only person to think so, it doesn’t manage to capitalize on a decent premise — especially now that premise isn’t as fresh-feeling as it once was.

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M.N. Miller

‘The Mule’ | Film Review