The Mule is surprisingly photogenic. Unfortunately, the beauty of the film is not enough to save it from the lack of dimensionality

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 1, 2024

Eastwood’s direction is skewered between poignant fish out of water vibes and random, arguably misguided commentaries on the state of the world today.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 14, 2024

Filled with humanizing moments, and at times, tonally jarring dialogue, many will find that while it’s no groundbreaking entry of the genre, the glaring message of stopping to smell the roses will be enough to make anyone smile.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 11, 2024

In The Mule, Eastwood demonstrates, through excellent handling of both the formal and the narrative and with his characteristic poignant bold dialogues, the generational and racial differences that make up this cultural “breeding ground” that is the USA.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 12, 2024

It’s all about a man running from his guilt, seeing the light, but still left to reckon with the choices he has made. It’s this primary focus that makes “The Mule” work.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

[The Mule] begins to simmer down, rather than boil, while trying to be a family-friendly drug mule film by the end.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2022

The material forces Eastwood's movie star persona into Earl, blending the two in troublingly convenient ways that hope to distract from the ugliness of what's happening onscreen.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Mar 4, 2022

Episode 23: Vox Lux / The Guilty / Shoplifters / The Mule / Rififi

| Original Score: 72/100 | Sep 4, 2021

Eastwood at his most whimsical, slight and gentle reflections wrapped around a stereotypical Eastwood flick.

| Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

There's something about The Mule's gently avuncular charm that makes it work, even as it falls over and over into cliché.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2020

The script lacks enough basic psychology to transcend the most uninspired of stereotypes, and Eastwood's direction never grants a visual or aural window into Leo's life.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 26, 2020

The film is actually highly watchable, emotionally satisfying and quite funny at times, which is a welcome shift from a lot of what Eastwood has been dishing out lately.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 13, 2020

With this film, Eastwood proves, at almost 90 years old, that he can still direct and star in a light criminal drama, without exaggerated gadgets, concise in his approach. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jun 27, 2020

Return to form for Eastwood as director with this moving, eloquent, richly expressive drama.

| Jun 26, 2020

Not unwatchable by any stretch, but could have been so much better in the hands of another filmmaker.

| Oct 25, 2019

I think that there's a sweetness to some of the film... There is a certain self-criticism built into the role as it goes along.

| Sep 12, 2019

Despite a few hiccups in the pacing, The Mule gallops quite gracefully.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 17, 2019

In this incredible-but-true tale, Clint Eastwood stars as a 90-year-old horticulturalist and deadbeat dad unwittingly recruited as a drug mule for a Mexican cartel.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2019

While it does fall into stereotype and is self-indulgent at times (there are two threesome scenes), it's agreeable and earnest throughout, as well as compelling in key moments.

| Jun 5, 2019

[Eastwood has] made a career out of deconstructing American myth-making, and here he's not only subverting very idea of the American dream itself, but his own cinematic style.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 3, 2019