Saturday, July 4, 2009

Public Enemies

Johnny Depp, Marion Cotard d/ Michael Mann

I guess there's not much new you can do with a film about a notorious gangster. This has been a popular subject from the 30's and has been covered by some real talents. The peak achievement was surely the first two Godfather movies which dealt with all the familiar themes with such artistry that they transcended the genre and established a standard all who followed would have to equal or be seen as irrelevant.

Like Mann here. This film was slick in a razzle-dazzle surface sort of way but never became more than a series of loud, frantically edited shoot-em-ups strung between some pointless character-development scenes. After an hour I was bored and the damn thing went on for another hour and a half.

The players were all skilled but poorly directed. All spoke with a solemnity that reduced the film to a caricature. No one in real life has ever talked like these people.

I was dismayed to see that the modern plague of extreme close-ups, hand-held camera, and rapid fire editing has made its way to major feature films. It's become so pervasive that hereafter I'll abbreviate my criticism to MTV, which was apparently the source for this trend.

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