“Public Enemies”

My review of the latest Michael Mann flick.

• Too long.
• Crackerjack sound design with gunshots that rattle your ribcage. Took some notes from SHANE I’d say.
• Can’t get enough of that Marion Cotillard. She’s talented, gorgeous and rivals Johnny in the ‘I’d watch you eat tomato soup on a Tuesday afternoon because your onscreen charisma is ridiculous’ department.  However, I wish someone had straightened out her accent in this flick. (PS – She’ll be burned into your brain after you watch her in LA VIE EN ROSE when she plays Edith Piaf from teenagehood to death. Skip her in A GOOD YEAR, a film that continues to baffle me in how boring and lazy it is despite its A-list roster.
• Wished PUBLIC ENEMES had been shot on film. And lit differently (and by ‘differently’ I mean ‘better’ but let’s not get into it).
• Surprise! Giovanni Ribsi, Channing Tatum (hello, GI Joe! Running around with a gun in this movie too!) and Stephen Dorff are excellently unrecognizable and totally enjoyable for it.
• Christian Bale. Serving his purpose with stoic deliveries and a successful accent. Beyond that, there’s not much to else I noted EXCEPT didn’t his butt look really big (like distractingly BIG) in that first scene?  I have yet to find directly referential photographic evidence of this hypothesis, but a quick google search recalled his ample booty in AMERICAN PYSCHO.

• Line that I’m a sucker for (even if it’s a mini-ripoff of Bull Durham):

John Dillinger: I like baseball, movies, good clothes, whiskey, fast cars… and you. What else you need to know?

• Favorite scene: Billie Frechette’s interrogation.
• I got a little emotional – no tears but my throat got tight – when:

Billie Frechette: They say you’re the man who shot him.
Charles Winstead: That’s right. One of ’em.
Billie Frechette: So why are you coming to see me? To see the damage you done?
Charles Winstead: No. I came here because he asked me to. When he went down, he said somethin’. I put my ear next to his mouth, and what I think he said was this. He said, ‘Tell Billie for me: Bye bye, Blackbird.’

Conclusion: Rent it if you like Johnny, loud guns, men with loud guns, and men (including Johnny) glowering with loud guns.