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6 items from 2009

8 December 2009 9:49 AM, PST | ReelLoop.com | See recent Reel Loop news »

It’s no secret that I think Michael Mann is the greatest director of all-time, dead or otherwise. One can throw all the Scorsese, Kurosawa, Ford, or Spielberg they want and I’ll still conclude that Mann is better than all of them. His style is unparalleled and has influenced my own approach to the way I make films. Maybe it’s how cool he makes everyone appear in his movies, or maybe it’s how no one does action better than him. Mr. Mann just has a touch to his films that really speaks to me. I’m awed by how well and how different he’ll shoot his material and how he builds his characters for the actors.  While not every one his films has been masterworks (Ali and The Keep come to mind) he rarely misses. Public Enemies, I’m proud to say, falls into the latter category. »

- Philip Barrett

1 November 2009 4:41 PM, PST | HeyUGuys.co.uk | See recent HeyUGuys news »

“I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars and you. What else do you need to know?”

Public Enemies is Michael Mann’s first venture into true-life territory since 1999’s The Insider. He has long been a master of slick fictionalised crime – his CV is a roll call of criminal capers and cops. The first twenty minutes of Public Enemies is this familiar Mann – the man who made Heat, Collateral and Miami Vice is here you think. The screen, the very room filled with slick staccato sights and sounds. It is cool; it looks period but feels contemporary, fast paced; a jail break, a bank heist, bang, bang, rapid-fire images, bang, bang. A car crests a hill with the robbers on the running boards clutching hostages to them, pretty girls, big guns, devil-may-care men; Gangsters. It explodes out of the screen burning with the same white-hot intensity that Mann believes »

- Emily Breen

9 September 2009 12:00 PM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

[Spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen "Inglourious Basterds."]

There have been two moments in film this year that have moved me to my cine-loving core. Both involved individuals stirred by the power of image, art and mythology. And both illustrated a personal investment for each character (some, real-life characters), revealing a potent significance and identification -- something that ascended beyond mere fandom. Simple and yet complex, these moments were meaningful to these people.

One, occurred in Michael Mann's "Public Enemies." Watching John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) fatefully sitting inside the Biograph watching Clark Gable as Blackie, essentially playing a version of Johnny (John Dillinger) in "Manhattan Melodrama," the look on J.D.'s face was gripping. And not only because we know what's going to happen to the legendary gangster once he steps out of that theater, but for all of the imagined ideas going through Dillinger's head at that moment. How could he not think »

- Kim Morgan

1 September 2009 11:47 AM, PDT | Huffington Post | See recent Huffington Post news »

[Re-printed from my story "What Inglourious Basterds Owes to History" publlished at IFC. Spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen Inglourious Basterds.] There have been two moments in film this year that have moved me to my cine-loving core. Both involved individuals stirred by the power of image, art and mythology. And both illustrated a personal investment for each character (some, real-life characters), revealing a potent significance and identification -- something that ascended beyond mere fandom. Simple and yet complex, these moments were meaningful to these people. One, occurred in Michael Mann's Public Enemies. Watching John Dillinger (played by Johnny Depp) fatefully sitting inside the Biograph watching Clark Gable as Blackie, essentially playing a version of Johnny (Johnny Dillinger) in Manhattan Melodrama, the look on J.D.'s face was gripping. And not only because we know what's going to happen to the legendary »

- Kim Morgan

6 July 2009 9:20 PM, PDT | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Self Styled Siren "anecdote of the week" the great Myrna Loy (Manhattan Melodrama) on John Dillinger -- a great choice 0f topic given all the discussion about Public Enemies this week.

PopWatch the future and end of Friday Night Lights, one of the best shows on television. If you haven't yet watched, please do yourself the favor and rent the DVDs.

Kenneth in the (212) on the documentary "My Big Break". A documentarian decided to film his struggling actor roommates and three of the four ended up finding some fame.

Lazy Eye Theater is a patriot. He alerts the authorities to Roland Emmerich's questionable activities. "If you see something, say something!"

The Hot Blog David Poland has some deep thoughts on the audience/critical divide and what we (the audience) need and accept from movies. Good stuff though I'm not so sure about the final Star Wars examples. CGI Yoda »

- NATHANIEL R

1 July 2009 1:37 AM, PDT | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

Marion Cotillard and Johnny Depp in Public Enemies

Photo: Universal Pictures It's no secret how the life of John Dillinger came to an end; so when Michael Mann begins his telling of the Dillinger story in 1933 only allowing for just over a year's worth of story to be told he isn't giving himself a lot of time. However, in a matter of only a few scenes Mann establishes his lead as a calculated and loyal criminal capable of breaking his friends out of jail, but unwilling to lose one along the way -- that is unless you are the man upon which Dillinger places blame. Here is our hero, or anti-hero as it is, and Johnny Depp plays him with an accomplished steely gaze. It's a low-key performance surrounded by menace, desire and love, but at the same time this film won't be for everyone as its slow pace and »

- Brad Brevet

6 items from 2009