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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘THE MULE’ Rated R
A person begins a life of crime typically at a young age, but the true story of Leo Sharp upends that scenario, for he became a drug courier as an octogenarian.
This forms the basis for Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule,” for which he directs himself as the titular character.
In the cinematic version, Eastwood’s Earl Sharp is a 90-year-old war veteran and horticulturist famed for his daylilies. So far this parallels the same background of his real-life subject matter.
In “The Mule” version, Earl has a farm in Peoria, Illinois and he’s fallen on hard times as his flower business has been hurt by the online marketplace. As a result, the local bank forecloses on his home and business.
At his granddaughter’s wedding, he learns making good money as a truck driver. But Earl is unaware that his advanced age and spotless driving record of going to far-flung places in his old Chevy pickup is of interest to a Mexican drug cartel.
As a driver, Earl’s proves his worth by numerous trips between Arizona and Detroit delivering bundles of illicit drugs. At first, he’s unaware of his cargo, but the payments for his efforts are so generous that he’s soon able to reclaim his property from the bank.
The ill-gotten gains also allow Earl to rebuild the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall for his war buddies. He also seeks to ingratiate himself with his estranged family.
The family angle becomes an interesting part of the story. His ex-wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) remains bitter that he spent their marriage on the road, while his daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood) hasn’t spoken to him since the day he failed to show up for her wedding.
Meanwhile, Earl merrily goes his own way with drug deliveries, even forming a bond with the Latinos at the nondescript garage where transfers of money and drugs are loaded into his truck.
But it’s not all fun and games for Earl when Mexican drug lord Senor Laton (Andy Garcia), seeing how his mule is taking on bigger hauls, assigns an unpleasant handler (Ignacio Serricchio) to keep tabs on Earl’s activities.
Meanwhile, the fact that drugs are flooding into the Midwest are not going unnoticed by federal law enforcement, and Bradley Cooper’s DEA agent Colin Bates, assisted by Agent Trevino (Michael Pena), goes on the road to track down an elusive courier.
Before his eventual capture by the law, there’s an interesting encounter between Agent Bates and Earl at a dinner where the conversation is about life choices with Earl paradoxically telling the agent that family is the most important thing.
In the end, before his own misguided choice unravels, Earl seeks to mend his ways with his family, not just with cash, and though it may be a little too late, he nevertheless seeks redemption.
For Eastwood fans who liked “Gran Torino,” there’s pleasure to be had with the almost parallel world of “The Mule.” The octogenarian director and star still has what it takes to deliver a good movie.>
‘FAM’ ON CBS NETWORK
The best thing about the new sitcom “FAM” on the CBS winter schedule just might be the casting, even though laughs are to be had about a young engaged couple getting their life upended by the woman’s estranged family.
Tone Bell’s Nick and Nina Dobrev’s Clem, the charismatic couple, are also upstaged in many ways by Nick’s charming and supportive parents, Rose (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Walt (Brian Stokes Mitchell, a leading man of musical theatre on Broadway).
On the flipside is Clem’s deadbeat father Freddy (Gary Cole), a NYPD homicide detective who was too busy with his job and chasing women to spend much time with Clem and her half-sister Shannon (Odessa Adlon).
Of greater concern to Nick and Clem is when Shannon shows up uninvited by picking the lock to their apartment. Suddenly, without any help from Freddy, the couple becomes unwilling surrogate parents to an out-of-control rebellious teen who dropped out of high school.
This turn of events leads to all sorts of comedic complications while Nick and Clem are in the midst of planning a wedding for which Rose, for one, seems to want a role in organizing.
Gary Cole scores many of the laughs with his carefree attitude about all family matters before shifting gears to trying mightily to impress his daughters and Nick’s parents that he is becoming a changed person.
Invited to a family dinner, Freddy dresses up nicely and brings an expensive bottle of wine for Rose and Walt, and then he just happens to admit that the fancy wine belonged to a hedge fund manager and was “swiped from the evidence locker.”
“FAM” has comedic promise that is worth a try. The show’s title is inspired by Shannon’s remark that “no one says family any more, it’s just fam.” This slang word has not been in my vernacular and probably never will be. However, I could tune into more episodes of “FAM.”
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center’s Restore project features a writers workshop with Russell Reza-Khaliq Gonzaga this Saturday, Jan. 12, from noon to 4 p.m.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Nancy Miller Gomez lives in California and directs writing workshops for incarcerated men and women.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘HOLMES & WATSON’ Rated PG-13
Unless the rules have changed, a film billed as a comedy is supposed to be funny, especially when the lead characters are Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. After all, they scored plenty of laughs in “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers.”
They are now reunited in “Holmes & Watson,” intended to mine laughs from the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective and sidekick. Instead, what Sony dumped into theatres on an unsuspecting public should win honors as the worst film of the year.
The origin story does not begin well. Ferrell’s Sherlock Holmes is first seen at an English boarding school where he is bullied and taunted. His crush on a pretty classmate ends up with the young lad tricked into kissing the rear end of a donkey (yeah, don’t ask).
Holmes gets his revenge by using his brain to get the entire student population expelled with the exception of Reilly’s Watson. Thus, a lifelong bond is formed between the two.
The professional partnership formed between old friends has Doctor Watson eagerly trying to establish his legitimacy as co-detective, a title that Holmes seems not so interested in bestowing.
The detective’s arch-nemesis is, of course, Professor Moriarty (Ralph Fiennes), first seen on trial for heinous crimes. In the courtroom, the judge impatiently waits for Holmes to turn up as the witness for the prosecution.
Meanwhile, Holmes appears oblivious to the time of his court appointment, as he prances around practicing a dramatic entrance all the while trying on a variety of hats, including a fez that says “Make England Great Again,” an anachronistic jab if there ever was one.
Even when he makes it to court with only seconds to spare before the judge would have no choice but to dismiss the defendant, Holmes botches his testimony such that the criminal mastermind is set free to the horrified chagrin of Inspector Lestrade (Rob Brydon).
With the masterful stroke of an inept performance, Holmes comes across as a buffoon whose supposed power of reasoning and logic is completely shattered. But there are no laughs or even giggles to be had with the detective’s clown show.
Watson fares no better in the smarts department. He is even fooled by Holmes’ disguise when he puts on a fake mustache in his presence. It doesn’t get any better when Watson goes undercover as a vendor of horse manure.
Most of the characters are wasted. Rebecca Hall turns up as American doctor Grace Hart, later re-enacting a famous movie scene with Watson. Her assistant Millie (Lauren Lapkus) is a mute who was raised by feral cats.
As the film comes to a merciful end, Moriarty is hanging out in a saloon where Holmes and Watson are disguised as cowboys. If you stayed in the theater this long, that would be unfortunate.
FOX NETWORK WINTER PREVIEW
Just like any network, FOX will run with proven commodities. Thus a famous celebrity chef returns with “Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back,” as he seeks to rescue dining establishments across the country on the brink of disaster.
Anyone knows that a restaurant is a high-risk business. Chef Ramsay and his crew transform struggling restaurants with spectacular renovations, fresh new menus and hope for the future.
What’s fresh for the winter is “The Masked Singer,” hosted by Nick Cannon, with panelists Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, delivering a top-secret singing competition that features celebrities facing off against one another.
The major twist is that each singer is shrouded from head to toe in an elaborate costume, complete with full face mask to conceal his or her identity. The celebrity guests are apparently well-known, including ones with loads of Grammy and Emmy award nominations.
“The Passage,” based on author Justin Cronin’s best-selling trilogy of the same name, is an expansive, character-driven thriller that focuses on Project Noah, a secret medical facility where scientists are experimenting with a dangerous virus.
When a young girl is chosen to be a test subject, a federal agent (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is tasked with bringing her in, but ultimately, becomes her surrogate father, determined to protect her at any cost.
The Tony Award-winning musical “Rent” is the next live musical production for FOX. The staging of a live production worked when the network presented “Grease: Live.” But Fox still has to catch up with NBC’s better track record in the musical arena.
“Rent” is set in New York City’s gritty East Village, telling the unforgettable story of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams during a time of social and political turmoil.
“Proven Innocent,” a legal drama starring Kelsey Grammer and Rachelle Lefevre, tells the emotional story of one woman’s fight for the innocence of others, as well as her own.
The series follows an underdog criminal defense firm led by a fierce lawyer, who was wrongfully convicted in a sensational murder case that made her an infamous media obsession, a household name and a national cause célèbre.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.