Noah Baumbach, the Coen brothers, Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Terry Gilliam, Leos Carax, Ridley Scott: that's the ever-growing catalog of directors Adam Driver has worked with. And with ferrariadd Michael Mann to that list.
Working with an author is connecting to their world. Driver isn't exactly versatile as an actor, but there's something undeniably magnetic about his physicality and the strange lilt of his voice. His presence seems classic in the way he fits into such a wide range of films. The gaps between Adam Sackler, Kylo Ren and the guy who hit the wall Marriage history They are not that wide. (Are they all meme-friendly?)
Thematically, ferrari It's pure Michael Mann shit: a portrait of a man trapped by his own desires. Here, Mann unravels the myth of Italian engineer Enzo Ferrari, whose aerodynamic sports cars would define a generation of high-end automotive design. But at what price? the film asks, begging us to care without ever making clear how running a team of drivers leads Enzo to a legacy-defining car brand.
Driver's Ferrari is a conflicted man, reeling from the loss of his son, in love with his mistress (Shailene Woodley), out of love with his wife and partner Laura (Penelope Cruz), and running a startup car manufacturing business. on the verge of insolvency. Ferrari is in red, which seems appropriate given the company's iconic color palette.
Every turn seems imprecise and every detour only takes the film further in an unclear direction.
A biopic often spans a lifetime, and I appreciate that Mann resisted that in ferrari. That said, Driver is baffled and sometimes confused, as his Italian accent hasn't improved since then. House of Gucci. (It seems as if Woodley was in the film solely to make Driver's Italian accent sound persuasive by comparison.) But it's less about the performance itself than what the fine script asks him to perform. The character's motivation feels more assumed than animated. Enzo regrets that his rivals at Maserati only participate in competitions to support the business, while his objective is quite the opposite: to sell cars to compete.
I just wish the passion was more convincing. Sure, no one likes accounting, but it takes intense suspension of disbelief to watch Enzo be shocked to hear how low sales are for the Ferrari cars he makes. (Why wouldn't he already know?) We never get the sense that he even tastes design cars, compete or win. Mann's best film, the cat-and-mouse heist thriller Heat, is the story of two men who deeply appreciate how good the other is at their jobs. Meanwhile, is Enzo Ferrari really a good engineer? I guess we see it with a shot a couple of times. Is he managing his drivers well? Definitely not, as one of the first (and strangely comical) scenes shows an accident that sends the driver's body flying through the air like a rag doll. Later, over wine and pasta, Enzo tries to inspire his runners: it is “our deadly passion, our terrible joy.” (If that phrase sounds inspired, it's actually copied from Enzo Ferrari's memoirs, My terrible joys.)
I want to credit ferrari for being a stranger movie than you'd expect from a biopic about a guy who builds iconic sports cars. But each detour feels imprecise, and each detour only takes the film further in an unclear direction.
Lost in the shuffle is Cruz, who overcomes some strangely blocked scenes to deliver a performance that is both familiar and inspired. She is angry and bitter about Enzo's decisions; Even so, a warmth emerges towards her husband. (Mann's history writing about women has ups and downs, and I'm happy to report that this is the first.) Laura Ferrari is an unpredictable character, one that, moment to moment, you will have no idea how she will respond. It's more exciting than watching a classic Ferrari hit the track.
Speaking of which, even the racing sequences, of which there are only a sparse couple, come off as disappointing. They are not loud or stimulating or muscular. The sound design feels bad. (This was at least the case at the New York Film Festival press screening I attended.) The race constructs are confusing and it was not clear to me how points were scored or winners determined.
Not even Driver can save this one. In the end, your mileage may simply vary depending on how much you like Mann's organizing principle: that masculinity is… a trap. It's an old idea that has worked throughout his career, and at 81, there's something compelling about seeing a movie legend make the same argument. After all, obsession and ambition are his basic themes.
Or maybe Michael Mann is just going around in circles and his pace is slowing as the films become less exceptional. in the world of ferrariThat would be just another round.
ferrari It is in theaters on December 25, 2023.
