The last couple of years of American film output have shown us that pop filmmaking is still alive and well, but only when it’s not confined to the sloppily produced children’s franchises that have dominated our culture for a decade or more. From old-guard masters like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron to established auteurs like David Fincher and Christopher Nolan to young up-and-comers like Jordan Peele and Damien Chazelle, quality in American cinema is not relegated to the peripheries of the medium — though it is telling that a project like “Ferrari” is being released without the involvement of a major Hollywood studio.
These films work as pop entertainment for a couple of reasons. For one thing, these filmmakers have pop sensibilities but they don’t set out to appeal to the widest possible audience. Their narratives are simple enough to play well to broad audiences, but that doesn’t mean they don’t try to tackle complex themes and ideas. They are just far more willing and capable of conveying them in a digestible way than art-focused films. On top of that, these filmmakers know how to use the medium to its full potential. If you look at something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it bears more resemblance to a television series than a movie franchise. There’s far more focus on writing and characters than creating visually innovative spectacles that make full use of the big budgets afforded to them. Part of this is the rushed nature of their productions, but part of it is the producers’ strategy of scooping up small independent filmmakers and television directors with no sense of visual scope. They hand these artists every tool they could ever dream of but not the time necessary to learn and make the most of them.
This desire to make film more like television — that is, to both give producers more control than artists and squeeze as much money out of one property as long as people will keep coming back — has left a lot of pop filmmaking feeling flat and unimaginative. So often now, major Hollywood releases don’t make us feel anything. They’re made to wash over us and make us want to see another, hoping that the next one will give us something to take away from it. Great pop filmmakers like Michael Mann put on a show now. There’s an immediacy to Mann’s films that comes from a sense that he may never get to make another film, not just in “Ferrari,” which may actually be his last film, but in all of his work. Mann always wants to leave an impression on you, and that often comes from his breathtaking formalism. From his carefully controlled compositions (using digital technology better than almost anyone else) to his propulsive editing, Mann’s visual style, more than his storytelling, is the emotional driver of his films.
The ultimate key to a pop film like “Ferrari” is powerhouse performances by movie stars. It can’t be enough for the leads to blend into their characters, they need to stand out and command the screen. Thankfully, Mann found the perfect duo in Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz. Does it matter that their accents aren’t great or that you never believe you’re watching Enzo and Laura Ferrari? No. Driver and Cruz have incredible screen presences. There is power and intensity in every line reading. Driver’s physicality is intimidating, but Cruz goes toe-to-toe with him. Their performances are critical for keeping the energy up during the domestic spats between racing sequences. Unfortunately, it also makes Shailene Woodley’s terrible performance stick out like a sore thumb. She brings the wrong energy to the role, and everything drags during her scenes.
“Ferrari” isn’t as deep or complex as whatever you might find in the arthouse scene, or indeed many of its Venice Film Festival peers, but it still has ideas and far more than most things you’ll find at the multiplex right now. Nothing playing right now is as visceral as Mann’s film, which finds as much intensity in its smaller dramatic moments as its grand set pieces. It’s refreshing to see a biopic that both shrinks the scope of its narrative and is willing to be critical of its subject. Films like this are good for the culture. We need more of them.
