The new film “The Mule” is about a story that were it not true, the overall experience would not be as believable or as good as this movie is. Clint Eastwood both stars and directed this movie and one of his best in recent years, and a good comeback from the bad “The 15:17 to Paris” released in February. It is amazing to see Eastwood still going strong at age 88 and I am sure if anyone asked him how he feels about being 88 years old he would say that “he is too busy to care”.

The Mule is about money and what a 90 year old World War 2 Veteran Earl Stone does to keep his house from being foreclosed on. To get a new truck for himself and to survive another day. By chance he becomes a mule, smuggling drugs from Mexico to Indiana and at first it seems a simple job where he does what he is told and at the end of the trip he collects a great deal of money. Over time the value of the cargo he is carrying grows exponentially as does the danger he puts himself in. What everybody finds out eventually when they deal with criminals and murders who smuggle drugs, is that eventually you will get yourself into a great deal of trouble and if you one day want to walk away, you cant, they will just kill you. The side story of Stone’s wife, played by Dianne Wiest I thought was very well done and showed how Earl Stone ignored his family most of his life, concentrating instead on plants because of his job as of all things, a horticulturist.

I thought the acting throughout this movie was very good, including Andy Garcia as the drug kingpin in Mexico and Bradley Cooper as the DEA Agent. Unfortunately, the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this movie are an anemic 63%, which surprises me because I give this movie a solid 80%. I do recommend The Mule.

The new film “At Eternities Gate” is about Vincent Van Gogh and the isolated depressing life he lead long before he was ever known to be one of the greatest painters of all time. His isolation right after his best friend, Paul Gauguin left him for the city eventually caused him to cut off his ear.

I thought the scenes of van Gogh painting and creating were very impressive as was the acting of Willem Dafoe who played Van Gogh and Oscar Isaac who played Paul Gauguin. However, I found this movie mostly too slow boring to recommend, despite the relatively high ratings. Just not my kind of movie.

The movie “Roma” is written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón who last directed the great 2013 movie “Gravity”. Roma could not be more different than Gravity. There are no special effects, the entire film is shot in black and white, something I have not seen in many years and this is a foreign language film with subtitles. The story is very minimal centering on the bleak life of a maid named Cleo who lives in Mexico City in the early 70’s and works for an upper middle class family. Cleo is the name of a common house cat and Cleo’s personality throughout this entire story seems as if she is a house cat herself, due to so many years of being beaten down for being born poor in the exact wrong place and time. Over the years, she just has no choice to accept her life as it is. The reality for so many millions like Cleo is, there is no where to go, no where to hide; you do what you have to do to survive.

Cleo becomes pregnant by her lowlife boyfriend, who once he finds out she is pregnant just abandons her at a movie theater and later disrespects her in public even threatening her with violence. Cleo just takes the non stop abuse with no emotion, as if being treated badly by everyone is her lot in life, her birthright. Much of this is difficult to watch because Cleo, played by a first time actress Yalitza Aparicio is so likable. She is beloved by the family she works for and their four children. She is constantly cleaning a hallway where the family dog defecates and this hallway/car garage is shown and cleaned so often in this movie it is even part of the opening montage. There is a deep message within this garage hallway where the family car can barely fit into and my personal understanding of this symbolism is that it the hallway represents the depressing confined life of so many millions of poor hard working people in the world.

There are several scenes in this film, showing the 1971 Corpus Christi Massacre in the middle of this story that enhances the bleak and dangerous reality of Cleo and all the people in her life. There are some violent scenes of murder and shootings that for some may be difficult to watch.

The visuals and symbolism throughout this film are many, enhanced by the high quality black and white film making. I was most impressed by the ending where Cleo is seen climbing a dangerous looking outdoor flight of stairs carrying laundry realizing that she has made this trip so many times in the past. This is her depressing life day after day, a family maid, climbing stairs over and over, making dinner, cleaning the garage, cleaning the house, accepting her life of being poor with no hope of anything better.

All of the reviews for this movie are outstanding, with accolades for the director Alfonso Cuarón, who has taken 5 years to make this movie after Gravity, which is a tribute to how much time he took to write and direct what many are considering to be a masterpiece of film making. This movie will most likely be in the list of 10 movies nominated for best picture this year, and should definitely win the best foreign language film of 2018. Roma represents a high level of film making as an art form, even though the story is very minimal but the underlying messages, visuals and symbolism are of a quality I have never seen before. Roma is Cuarón’s gift to the harsh life reality of millions of poor people in the world and I give it my highest recommendation.