Ferrari (2023)

★★★ (out of 5)

I found Ferrari underwhelming. Perhaps it is this year’s biggest disappointment - not because it is bad, but because it has all the ingredients of a great movie that never materializes. It has good moments but struggles to kick into the next gear. Good performances, especially from Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, but the story drags limply along. The racing sequences are only exciting in fits and starts, and I kept wishing for more.

Driver and Mann are both firing on all cylinders here but they truly hold the film together in its lackluster moments. Mann’s film is ambitious in the ideas it presents and some of the subtext, but the script holds the film down so much it’s almost annoying. The tone is a bit inconsistent as well and overall the ending comes as an afterthought. The cinematography is extremely crisp and slick though. The wide shots of racing and the scenery within the shots are just so clean and amazing to see between the moments of dialogue and little action. Overall the film is worth the watch simply for Driver and Mann. The idea and planning of Ferrari seemed like an excellent choice for Mann, but the execution just wasn’t on par with his other films. At least watch it for the sake of seeing a new Michael Mann film.

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Film Info:

Premise: Set in the summer of 1957, with Enzo Ferrari's auto empire in crisis, the ex-racer turned entrepreneur pushes himself and his drivers to the edge as they launch into the Mille Miglia, a treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy.

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Neon

Directed by Michael Mann

Written by Troy Kennedy Martin

Based on the book by Brock Yates

Cast: Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Gadon, Jack O’Connell, Gabriel Leone

Runtime: 2hr 4min

Rating: 14A

Biography, Drama, History

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IMDb Rating: 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

RT Audience Score: 72%

RT Critic Average: 6.6/10

RT Audience Average: 3.9/5

Metacritic Score: 73

CinemaScore: B

Letterboxd: 3.3/5

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Fun Fact: Director Michael Mann had been trying to get the film made for more than 20 years. An article from 1993 reveals that Mann was developing this biopic with Robert De Niro attached to star, as his follow-up to The Last of the Mohicans (1992).

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Trailer: