No piece of art happens in a vacuum. Everything we produce as a culture is, whether we like it or not, influenced by what’s come before. Film is no exception to this, and practically since the dawn of the medium, film makers have been drawing influences from the classical arts, chief among them painting. In …
For a director whose work is known to be incredibly macho and conform to genre tropes, Mann stands out amongst a lot of cinephiles as the one of the best studio filmmakers working today. His films, shot in digital or non-digital, evoke a moody imagery that glorifies his character’s emotional being yet is radiated by coolness. Last night, the BAMcinematek …
Released thirty-five years ago, Michael Mann’s Thief was an auspicious debut from an American filmmaker. Mann had actually directed a television film two years prior, but Thief represents the true start of his feature film oeuvre. The film’s style, its use of color and light, and its influential electronic score all set the template for …
1981 saw the release of Michael Mann’s feature directorial debut Thief. James Caan plays Frank, a professional safecracker whose plan to settle down spirals out-of-control when he becomes indebted to an underworld criminal organization.
You might’ve used the expression “The Real McCoy” and not actually known where it came from. Colloquially it refers to something being authentic, or the real deal. In fact, if someone were to name their movie after it, you might presume it was just a romantic comedy. Well, now super-mega-star Chris Pratt is set to star …
Minor quibbles aside, there is little doubt that Thief remains one of the director’s more accomplished and assured projects. It serves as an indicator of the material that speaks to him, material he would borrow from a few more times in the following decades and boasts a raw, subtly layered performance from the iconic James Caan. Whether it represents Mann’s best work or not, it certainly is neo-noir done right.
Michael Mann is fascinated by obsessives who work on opposite sides of the law. In fact, when you go over his filmography, it’s filled with them: loners who are hardened by choice and keep others at a constant arm’s-length, indulging in their skills instead. Starting in 1981, Mann made his first feature, Thief, about a …
Blackhat is a cyber-thriller that starts out boring and ends dumb. It’s almost unimaginable that a gifted director like Michael Mann, responsible for, arguably, the best crime-thriller of the last 30 years in Heat, could helm a film so utterly bereft of tension or drama. Not even his signature hyper-stylized aesthetic can disguise what a lackluster film this is. From the unimaginative script to the indifferent editing, Blackhat needs a complete overhaul to escape the basement of Mann’s distinguished filmography.
As we spend a month looking at the great Stanley Kubrick, we can also look at the filmmakers who were clearly influenced by Kubrick. “Kubrickian” films tend to exercise incredible control of the camera, are extremely ambitious, tend to deal with much weightier themes, and always maintain a sense of mystery, like a there’s an …
In 1986, Mann was the first to bring Thomas Harris’s character of Hannibal Lecter to the screen with Manhunter, and his adaptation of the novel Red Dragon, is a disturbing examination of voyeurism. Writer/director Michael Mann’s measured approach pays off in spades. Manhunter is a clever race-against-time flick, in which the ticking of the clock …
I actually have a good reason for not discovering Miami Vice until just a few months ago. I wasn’t actually born when it started and I was only a year old when it ended. What I don’t have is a good excuse as to why I actually chose to dust off the series and give it a shot. I can say though, that I am more than happy I did.
Film locations are rarely given much screen time. They are seen in a moment, establishing where the action takes place. They are no more than a beautiful backdrop, and the actual location may not be remembered. Yet there are some locations that become characters themselves on film. Countless films have been shot on location in …
Anyone who watches Welcome to the Punch will, at some point, feel the unerring prick of realization running up their spine. In full, the film is technically original, but in its parts, the seasoned moviegoer will recognize a number of elements from pretty much every crime drama released in the last 30 years. We have a dogged, Javert-like cop looking for revenge for a past slight, a conspiracy that reaches far and wide both within the force and within the world of big-city politics, and the sleek silvers and blues meant to point out the inherent, Michael Mann-esque moodiness on screen.
Manhunter is adapted from the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon, the book which introduced the world to the serial killer known as Hannibal Lecter. It came five years before Harris’s other novel was adapted to the screen ( The Silence of the Lambs), and 27 years before the NBC hit crime drama Hannibal. In between, the role of Dr. Hannibal has been reprised several more times, including Hannibal in 2001 and in a second adaptation of Red Dragon made in 2002 (under the original title).
In framing Hannibal as a weekly procedural, showrunner Bryan Fuller populates his world with so many serial killers, that it becomes hard to believe that so many of these insane, yet brilliant men can all reside in the same city at the same time. Only two episodes in and we’ve already been introduced to three killers, with the possibility of a fourth. Yet, while the second episode of Hannibal does introduce a new ‘killer of the week’ formula, the series remains elevated by four things:
We love crime movies. We may go on and on about Scorsese’s ability to incorporate Italian neo-realism techniques into Mean Streets (1973), the place of John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950) in the canon of postwar noir, The Godfather (1972) as a socio-cultural commentary on the distortion of the ideals of the American dream blah …
Ever since the birth of the concept in the early eighties, the prospect of a ‘Director’s Cut’ has become one of the most mouth watering morsels for film fanatics, a chance to glimpse an expanded version or in some cases a radically altered vision to their favorite movies. Whether it be the lengthening of an …
Luck, Season One, Episode Three Written by Bill Barich Directed by Allen Coulter Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on HBO First, a word about the controversy surrounding the show that arose this week. For the uninitiated, it came out that two horses perished over the course of the filming of the show’s first season; as …
Luck, Season One, Episode Two Written by John R. Perrotta Directed by Terry George Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on HBO “The Ace is back in place.” To Luck‘s credit, it goes to great lengths to put all of its players on an even keel in terms of representation on the screen; that means the …
Public Enemies Directed by Michael Mann Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) brings his usual directorial flair to the well-worn story of John Dillinger and his dogged pursuers – but not much else. Shot in bracing digital with a weight and sense of gravity desperately missing from similar genre efforts as of late, Enemies nevertheless winds up …
Twilight was the toast of the MTV Movie Awards winning five major prizes. But who gives a shit. Sacha Baron Cohen just tea bagged Eminem. Now that’s what I want more of at my awards shows. Yes, the bit is ripped off from a similar stunt by Howard Stern pulled at the VMA’s some while …