293: Ferrari

[00:00:00] Hello everybody, welcome back to the Film Buds podcast and welcome to chapter 6 of our mini marathon series And my name is Henry. If you are listening to this for the first time and you haven't listened to the first five chapters This is a mini review

[00:00:17] Marathon where five episodes will be released all at once covering all different kinds of movies and the specifics of those are in the show notes So just reviews nothing else short and sweet all that good stuff

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[00:00:42] Bankcamp.com and at some point I probably will be releasing a compilation bonus show of these Mini marathons after I maybe do four or five of them together. I might do that as just a

[00:00:55] Extra bonus show and you can have all of them in one place. So keep an eye out for that and like I said in the first part I Am NOT gonna be doing this super often

[00:01:06] I was just really in the mood to release a lot of content as of late And so that's why you're getting so much at once I don't mean to be spamming anyone

[00:01:14] But hopefully it's good content and you can always catch up if you don't have the time to listen to all of it right now It probably will be at most twice a month. Maybe every other week something like that, but

[00:01:25] We'll see could depend on the month and our schedules and all that But if you have any recommendations in terms of structure or release dates anything like that Let us know in our contact information in the show notes, but should be a great time. Thanks for joining us

[00:01:40] Let's get into it chapter 6 new films Let's get into Ferrari So Ferrari is directed by Michael Mann stars Adam driver Shailene Woodley Penelope Cruz Gabriele Leone and a few others and The synopsis is set in the summer of 1957 with Enzo Ferrari's auto empire in crisis

[00:02:07] the X-Racer turned entrepreneur pushes himself and his drivers to the edge as they launch into the Mali Miglia, sorry if I butchered that name, a treacherous 1,000 mile race across Italy so Michael Mann I

[00:02:22] First one I saw if his was public enemies, which remains my favorite of his to this day. I like him a fair bit I haven't seen a handful of his earlier movies There's something while he definitely is an auteur and he's done some very iconic movies

[00:02:36] there is something I always find a little bit distant about his films not that that's inherently a bad thing, but While I always watch what he does at this point

[00:02:45] He's not someone I'm immediately drawn towards or I feel the need to always go back and check out his earlier filmography, which I will at some point but he's definitely an interesting filmmaker for sure, but not like a all-time favorite of mine And then this movie in particular

[00:03:03] I didn't know about it probably until a few weeks before it came out and unfortunately it did not do very well Financially as did his most recent movie black cat

[00:03:12] So he for whatever reason is not much of a box-office draw these days. I think he had some earlier hits financially Years ago, but not as much now

[00:03:22] Which is too bad because I think he's a great filmmaker and definitely has a very interesting eye and tells a lot of interesting stories As for anyone who has listened to the show before I'm not a car guy at all

[00:03:34] I appreciate cars and there's nothing wrong if you love cars or anything like that I like classic cars and I enjoy that world but I'm not someone who geeks out over a cool car or feels the need to have a really cool car or anything like that, which

[00:03:49] nothing against people who do that's just personal taste of mine and Nevertheless, I really like ironically movies about cars and Inventors and the mechanics of cars. So I really like the concept especially from a cinematic perspective of Cars and trucks and racing and all that good stuff

[00:04:09] So I think it's a great part of cinema that can make for really intense action sequences and other stories just as this one does I Didn't know much about Enzo Ferrari really at all. I knew the name of course, but not much more than that

[00:04:24] So all this was fairly new to me Overall, I think the movie is solid I think I like black hat a little bit more and I would say Most of his other movies that I've seen of his I like more than this public enemies, of course collateral

[00:04:40] last the Mohicans This one would be middle of the pack towards the lower part of his filmography that I've seen still a good movie don't get me wrong, but I Found that there were parts of the movie that just dragged a little bit that were a little generic

[00:04:55] I think Adam driver is amazing. It's crazy to think about when I first saw him and I Believe it was called what if the Daniel Radcliffe romantic comedy and then in girls the HBO show where he was this quirky character actor, but I didn't really

[00:05:12] see him inherently as a Leading man or anything like that And then suddenly he was in Star Wars and he's gone on to have this huge leading man career And I think he's an amazing actor and he's done quite the variety of roles over the years

[00:05:25] so I am a big big Adam driver fan, and he's Excellent and this does not disappoint he captures that Persona as far as I understand of Ferrari. I Do find and it's an issue with all of these sorts of movies where?

[00:05:41] There's an English or American actor whoever it might be Speaking in an accent for a foreign role. So in this case, it would be Adam driver doing an Italian accent

[00:05:50] He does it fairly well and consistently as opposed to a lot of other movies that have this type of character Performance, but still it's a little distracting end of the day. I know he's Italian and I know Adam driver is an Italian and

[00:06:06] so in that way, I feel like the authenticity is Sort of lost in that way, but not a big deal because it's fairly restrained which I appreciate the racing scenes Michael Mann clearly has a love of

[00:06:22] Racing and automobiles. He really features that in most of his movies when he possibly can The sequences are incredibly well directed. The sound design is amazing. Michael Mann has great sound design Talents, so that's the best part of movie by far, especially the final

[00:06:40] Thousand-mile race across Italy, which I didn't even know was a thing. I think it's really interesting and is a great cinematic story But the human side the Ferrari side of the story is good, especially when it's dealing with the illegitimate son

[00:06:55] I won't spoil too much but the illegitimate son of Ferrari and then Penelope Cruz Finding this out and the mistress of Ferrari. All that's fairly interesting, but Michael Mann either doesn't care as much about that or just doesn't have the Emotional resonance to always make it really compelling

[00:07:15] So it feels like there is at times an inconsistency in terms of that where the racing scenes will be in your face amazing thrilling Nail-biting intense and then there will be long stretches where it's just The human side of the story and it's not always that interesting

[00:07:32] Sometimes it is but there were points where the pacing dropped off. It got a little muddled I didn't get attached to anyone all that much most of the time Still love drivers performance, of course and Penelope Cruz is amazing

[00:07:46] She's very underrated in my opinion, maybe under eight is the wrong word I feel like she gets a lot of credit, but still she's fantastic Shailene Woodley don't love her in general, but I think she's alright in this

[00:07:57] She would probably be the weaker point in the movie though performance wise Other than that looks really good Well directed as I said good score Top notch production design costume design. All that stuff is very top tier

[00:08:14] So, I guess long run long story short good movie a little Disappointing I guess in terms of waiting eight years since the last Michael Mann movie I don't know if it was really worth the wait in that sense, but still memorable has some good ideas about

[00:08:30] This guy who's always on the edge of losing everything, you know Anything could go wrong at any moment with one of his cars and his drivers just as in some ways it does in the final act in that race

[00:08:41] Especially the big scene. I won't spoil it too much but the crash Towards the end of the movie is insane and I didn't know anything about the story So I'm guessing it's fairly true in terms of what happened I could be wrong there

[00:08:53] But no matter what in the context of the movie pretty horrifying in terms of that crash and you see the dangers of all that and that is Hinted more so in the beginning of the movie where people are being hurt and killed by test driving and all that

[00:09:06] So it's a very interesting unsettling at times movie not a favorite of mine Not a favorite Michael Mann, but worth a watch if you like biopics because it is at least in some ways different Higher level in terms of quality. So give it a look

[00:09:22] That would be a four out of five