“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
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In regard to Michael Manns The Keep – Just wanted to let you guys know that a feature length documentary about the making of The keep, is nearing completion. This documentary, will be the "go to document", on everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Keep, to include the longer directors cut and the original vision for the film. The makers of the documentary are nearing the end of production on the project and have opened a fund raising effort on Indie Gogo to raise 50,000 towards its completion, with some other longer term stretch goals, toward the preservation of the film and its soundtrack. If you’ve ever wanted to see a directors cut, this is the first step on the road toward that, and its happening right now!! There are only 29 days left to help fund this effort!
I cant post links here but if you are interested, then google the term -"A World War II Fairytale for Adults – The making of Michael Manns The Keep" and click on the facebook link in the results page. Thats their facebook group page and on there you will find links to their website and the Indiegogo fundraiser.
As an aspiring screenwriter who has just completed her first serial crime courtroom series cable and/or full feature length screen treatment, the overall influence on my cinematic and novelesque orientations arise in large part to the works of Michael Mann. Mann has a gritty, take no prisoners plausible view of law enforcement and the judiciary and the ease with which corruption, special influence peddling, politics and alliances rule the end games in courtrooms nationwide. He also has a limitless eye on the importance of whistleblowers and muckrakers in shining lights on malfeasant governance and dangerous corporate intentions and actions that initiates non-stop drama, anxiety, audience paranoia and makes the viewer want more and more. It would be an honor for Director Mann to direct anything I have ever penned.
one of the greatest directors ever so distinctive from everyone else that rare thing style substance moods and colors that put you in the frame of mind of his central characters and a visual style unmatched when a Michael Mann movie comes out it is an event.
"The Keep" is his best film simply because its weird and imaginitive and has special effects in it, all his other movies are boring drama's, its a shame that disgusting and loathsome British faggot Ian McKellen was in it though, that spoils it.
I wonder why the Robbery Homicide Division pilot isn't even metioned.
lol this is satire right
So let's resume: Collateral = B+ ???
Miami Vice = B+ ???
Manhunter = B+ ???
The Insider (Mann's masterpiece) = A- ???
Heat = A and not A+ ??
Public Enemies = B- ????
Ok, that's a true fact == >> Indiewire understand NOTHING in the work of the best contemporary filmmaker of our time.
Ridiculous ratings.
One of the best directors ever! A cinematic genius. I just hope we will see more films more Michael Mann.
Couldn't have disagreed more on your problems with Collateral, but that's just, like, your opinion, man!!!
William Petersen's performance "wooden", wtf!?
what does a man need to do to get a a+ around here. like Heat isn't an a+?!
Thief is an amazing movie with an equally amazing soundtrack, by far my favorite Mann flick. William Friedkin (with Sorcerer) and Mann really knew how to utilize Tangerine Dream to create memorable and yet haunting moments in their films. The scene in Thief where Caan is cracking the safe with fire sparks flying to the madness of Tangerine Dream's "Diamond Diary" is one of my favorite scenes in cinema.
A correction: Ali's opening is timed to Sam Cooke's live version of Bring it on home to me, not A change is gonna come.
Thanks for your continuing filmmaker retrospective series!
My issue with Miami Vice was that it had very few similarities to the TV show. It just didn't have the same feel or look as the 80's version. I think I would have enjoyed it more had it not been named Miami Vice because other than being in Miami and having the same characters names I don't know how they were alike.
Great feature. I've been a Mann fanatic for ages. I know the content of his films may not interest everybody, but when it comes to the language of cinema, the mood and tonal elements of it, the composition of the shots, choice of lenses, editing, and so forth, few filmmakers in the world as as distinct and gifted as Mann. Personally, I think Public Enemies rather than Miami Vice is the really great late period Mann picture. It shows a director who had outgrown his earlier need (in Heat, for example) to verbalize all his ideas and themes in the script, conveying his ideas instead largely through images, and the characters through body language and nuances of facial expression rather than words – he has become over time something of a minimalist like John Pierre Melville did. I think history will judge Mann's digital experimentation more kindly than contemporary audiences – already its influence is starting to crop up quite a lot, in things like Spring Breakers, The Bling Ring, and Claire Denis' Bastards. I
Cyber will have a limited release in Dec. 2014 and expand in Jan. 2015.
Interesting note: Jason Statham had one scene at the beginning of Collateral conspicuously trading briefcases with Cruise.
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