IN ‘THE MULE,’ CLINT REFLECTS ON A LIFE ON THE ROAD

Both tender apologia and vigorous justification, Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule” is a deeply, fascinatingly personal meditation from the 88-year-old director who, like his aged drug mule protagonist, has spent a long time on the road.

“The Mule” is the indefatigable Eastwood’s second film just this year, following “The 15:17 to Paris,” a distinctly undramatic dramatization of the thwarted 2015 train attack, starring the real-life heroes. Eastwood isn’t playing himself in “The Mule” — far from it — but it’s hard not to appreciate, and be moved by, the film’s