Movie Details
| Title: | Ferrari | |
| Director: | Michael Mann | |
| Year: | 2023 | |
| Genre: | Gearhead | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.11.23 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (6)
- Blackhat
- Collateral
- Heat
- Miami Vice
- Public Enemies
- Thief
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.11.23 | Internet | I have to say, I much prefer Mann's take on a biopic where we really just get a slice of time rather than the typical structure. I didn't think much of it with Ali but this follows the same pattern and I wound up liking it much more than I thought I would. Similarly, I'm thinking back to Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers and Walt Disney. Both of those movies also avoid the Walk Hard tropes but still allow us to get the essence of the character. In that vein, I think Adam Driver's performance here is a success. That said, it's not... I dunno, it's not amazing. The racing scenes are good, going for more of an in-camera vibe following these old cars around (I would say they might've tricked me a la The Killer where mundane shit like Fassbender scootering down a street is rife with vfx for some reason, but the instances of actual cgi here - namely the crashes - are clearly cgi so I buy that the real-looking stuff is real) so it has a different vibe from, say, Ron Howard's Rush or even Ford v. Ferrari. But that's just a couple minutes of a two-hour movie. Similarly, the scenes between Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz are great... and again I think Driver's behavior through the whole movie gives me a sense of Enzo Ferrari the character without having to endure too many flashbacks to his childhood and other formative events. But just like Ali, since we are just dropped in for a few days in this guy's life, some of it seems pretty random, other parts feel unresolved, and the movie ends somewhat abruptly. Did I like it more than Blackhat? Hell fucking yes. More than Public Enemies? Yeah? I think so? More than Mann's 7 movies previous to that? Nah. It's good but not amazing. Now... a few spoiler-y comments: spoilers ahead I had a few thoughts about the two crash scenes in the movie. Now, I watched this on a DVD screener so the detail was pretty low, but both crash scenes attempt to show the raw carnage that happens when a tiny car going very fast decides to fling into the air. I love the ambition of showing something that's traditionally done in a series of slow-motion close-ups that manage to dissect what's happening but also remove us from the shock of the moment. Here, the first crash comes after a series of extreme close-ups showing the transmission catch, the tires lock, then a slow-motion shot of the tires hitting a curb then 3 shots total showing the car flying through the air (the driver also flying like a ragdoll) and crashing into empty bleachers. The second, bigger crash slows down to show us what caused it, followed by a few quick cuts then one long shot as the flying hunk of metal tears through a line of spectators. Then we get a long dolly of special effects make-up of the victims culminating in a gruesome bottom half and top half of, i think, the driver? Super shocking, super brutal, juuuust a little too fake. The CGI doesn't cut it. It's not fast enough or there's not enough blurring or dirt clods or something because it looks like the car and mostly the bodies don't pass the test. It's a real shame because... well, it's still a heck of a shocking moment and I imagine it will cause gasps in the theater, but people watching closely, and everyone when they watch at home and can pause and rewind, will see that the illusion doesn't hold. It doesn't help that Ferrari has like 0 reaction, but I guess that's the point; that's his character. So If they flopped around a little more, maybe a little heavier sound design, a couple dozen more hours honing the physics and it would be a real stand-out. But I think mostly people are going to talk about how the cgi looks bad. |
