Mule

James and Kate are golden children of the late twentieth-century, flush with opportunity. But then economic downturn and an unexpected pregnancy send them searching for a way to make do. A winter in the mountains of California's Siskiyou County introduces a tempting opportunity. A friend grows prime-grade marijuana; if James transports just one load from Cali to Florida, he'll pull down enough cash to survive for months. James navigates life as a mule, then a boss-- from money-hungry friends to gun-toting drug lords, from Sacramento to Tallahassee, from just making the weight move cross-country to making thousands of dollars a day. The risks keep rising, forcing him to the next criminal level. A kidnapping, a shoot-out, a bank vault it all culminates in a swirl of action. Absorbing and timely, Muleperfectly captures the anxieties of plunging into the criminal world and of being a young person in a moment when the American Dream you never had to believe in suddenly vanishes from the menu.