BULL
★★★★
OUT 5 NOVEMBER / CERT 18 / 87 MINS
DIRECTOR Paul Andrew Williams
CAST Neill Maskell, David Hayman, Tamzin Outhwaite
After a successful decade in TV, Paul Andrew Williams returns to the big screen with a grim if hardly groundbreaking thriller. A superb Neill Maskell is the titular Bull who, after ten years away, is back seeking vengeance against the family and friends who wronged him. There are moments of opera-scored lyricism but this is mostly in the key of gritty, gory realism, as Bull bludgeons his way towards crime boss Norm (a menacing David Hayman). Flitting between two-time frames (there are brief snatches of happier times), Williams’ spare script and Maskell’s perfectly attuned performance don’t ladle Bull himself with trite psychological motivations; he’s just a brutally efficient revenge machine. Think The Bride minus the yellow tracksuit.
IF
CRY MACHO
★★★
OUT 12 NOVEMBER / CERT 12A / 104 MINS
DIRECTOR Clint Eastwood
CAST Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam, Eduardo Minett
A gruff former ranch-hand is hired to transport his old boss’ son from Mexico to Texas. It could be the plot of a classic Clint Eastwood Western, but this 1980- set tale has more in common with the director’s Gran Torino. Cry Macho is a meandering road trip that finds Eastwood’s leathery Mike Milo slowly bonding with the posturing lad (Eduardo Minett’s Rafo) and his cocky rooster Macho. After a first act that feels more ‘Cry Expo’, with info-dumps about Mike’s past, it settles into an engaging low-stakes drama vibe, as Mike and Rafo deal with alcoholic mothers, pesky federales and welcoming café owners. Are there clichéd potholes and stultifying stops? Sure, but the journey ultimately feels worth taking.
JW