“Public Enemies” (2009)
“Digital makes things feel more real, like you could reach out and touch them,” Michael Mann said in cinematography magazines on the eve of the release of his Dante Spinotti-shot high-resolution 2009 feature. And while the director had dabbled with digital photography as far back as “Ali,” never had the stylistic choice been so polarizing and so jarring as with the 1930s, Depression-era period piece “Public Enemies.” Starring Johnny Depp as notorious bank robber John Dillinger and Christian Bale as famed, dogged FBI agent Melvin Purvis, one could have expected lots of heavyweight sparks between the two actors, but like in “Heat,” Mann lets these men-at-cross-purposes share just one scene. In fact, similarities with Mann’s inarguable masterpiece are everywhere: Dillinger, like De Niro’s Neil McCauley has zero tolerance for unprofessional loose cannons and those associates who do not respect the craft. And while Dillinger is much more a would-be celebrity populist than McCauley’s austere, anti-social thief, his honor within criminal codes similarly defines him. And like the hard-luck crook in “Thief,” Dillinger subconsciously knows he’s living on borrowed time, hence the similar accelerator-to-the-pedal approach to romance. But while perhaps a confluence of many of Mann’s greatest themes, “Public Enemies” just doesn’t quite gel on the level of earlier masterpieces and actually says far less (revelatory or otherwise) about each of its characters. Bale’s Purvis for one is mostly a non-entity other than the determined and driven FBI agent, and for all of Depp’s charms, he rarely can make Dillinger into a wholly captivating individual. Chock-a-block with supporting actors and cameos (pre-fame Carey Mulligan, Emilie de Ravin and Jason Clarke, plus Channing Tatum, Stephen Dorff, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Billy Crudup and more to name a few), it doesn’t help that the central romance between Depp and Marion Cotillard is missing a lot of crucial, fundamental chemistry. The use of anachronistic modern music and digital photography isn’t so much of an issue (especially on repeat viewings), though it admittedly veers between looking astonishingly beautiful, and then as if it was shot on a cell phone. And digital does push the coldness factor. The dispassionate, but locked-in and masterfully detailed gaze of Michael Mann often creates deeply engrossing and humanizing portraits of criminals and their fetishes, but “Public Enemies” is perhaps his most detached work; it’s as if these men don’t mesmerize the filmmaker in the same way. Still, the stylish and brutal film and its technically accomplished pursuit has a grinding intensity that crackles in its last act, capping a film that might be hard to fully fall for, but still has many elements that are easy to admire. [B-]
“Luck” (2011, TV show)
Creator, executive producer and director of the pilot episode, Michael Mann’s return to television on HBO was certainly rich with promise, exploring the world and lives of those around a horse racing track. As the story goes, production on the show was contentious, with Mann and writer David Milch forced to strictly divide their duties: the director tackled the pilot, and closely oversaw the episodes shot by other filmmakers over the rest of the season, while the scribe gained total control of the scripts. The result? A show that was energetically and excitingly shot—the horse race sequences were always thrilling across all nine episodes—but narratively bogged down, with at least a half dozen subplots going at any one time, but none allowed to take central focus. Both initially confusing and molasses-paced, “Luck” somewhat rewarded the patient viewer who stuck around to see how the storylines eventually developed. But overall, it felt very much like a show created by two people who owned individual parts of the production but never truly collaborated. The verve Mann puts on display and instills in the guest directors makes it feel like the visuals are moving at a different pace than the actual storylines, creating a disconnect that the show never really managed to overcome. Still, for Mann completists, the pilot and show are worth tracking down if only to see the filmmaker bring his cinematic techniques to a smaller canvas, in the modern age of great TV, without missing a beat. [B-]
Michael Mann will return! His next film “Cyber” (a title it’s working under but hasn’t been officially confirmed) is slated to arrive in January 2015, but we kind of refuse to believe that for several reasons, and have included it in our 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2014 (in fact, were that release date debate any clearer, it would probably have been higher than no. 16). Detailing a cyberterrorist attack which necessitates the involvement of a hacker criminal and spans several countries across South East Asia, it stars Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis and Tang Wei and we can’t wait. — Rodrigo Perez, Jessica Kiang, Drew Taylor, Oli Lyttelton, Kevin Jagernauth, Ben Brock
