Features
With Stateside critics somewhat split on “Public Enemies,” I was interested to see what the UK reception for the film would be like. For all the brawny Americanness of his aesthetic, Michael Mann has many passionate apologists on these shores — he even received a BAFTA nod in 2005 for “Collateral” — perhaps to some […]
Brit critics cool on ‘Enemies’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:30 pm · July 2nd, 2009
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REVIEW: “Public Enemies” (***1/2)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 4:00 pm · June 23rd, 2009
Los Angeles Film Festival There is a moment very early in Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” featured today as the centerpiece exhibition of the Los Angeles Film Festival, when Depression-era criminal John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) stares into the dying eyes of friend and mentor Walter Dietrich (James Russo) as his band of cohorts flees the scene […]
Filed in: Reviews
David Thomson on Christian Bale
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:25 am · June 21st, 2009
Christian Bale has been given something of a rough ride of late, with the combination of unfortunate media attention and a dreary turn in the woebegone “Terminator Salvation” slightly stripping the varnish from an otherwise solidly built career. Thankfully, Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies” has arrived just in time to restore some respectability, though early word […]
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Windy City ‘Enemies’ premiere
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:56 am · June 19th, 2009
(Courtesy: Chicago Tribune)
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Depp, Bale, Mann talk ‘Public Enemies’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:40 am · June 1st, 2009
From last night’s MTV Movie Awards. It’s only just hitting me, by the way, the fortunate timing of this release:
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SHORT TAKE: “Terminator Salvation” (*1/2)
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:16 am · May 20th, 2009
I knew five minutes into McG’s cumbersome, misguided, lifeless “Terminator Salvation” that I would be writing a short take rather than a full review. The film sucks inspiration out of the viewer in a staggering fashion. It disavows intriguing ideas explored in the franchise to date and renders a potentially exciting re-launch of the material […]
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5/20 Web Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:26 am · May 20th, 2009
• Peter Sciretta asks for your most hated uses of CGI in movie history. [/Film] • Charlie Kaufman talks “Synecdoche, New York,” his “mutant horro film,” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph] • IMAX plans to cozy up next to James Cameron’s “Avatar” for an extended run. [The Carpetbagger] • Donna Freydkin chats up “Terminator Salvation” […]
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Standing up for Bale
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:13 pm · May 19th, 2009
Even the Batman thing is a collaboration with an artist, Christopher Nolan (as Cage tried to support The Pangs and LaBute – amongst others – and make commercial cinema with edge, like Burton’s non-starting Superman). Do we need to beat up a guy who did two Batman movies and a Terminator while also doing I’m […]
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Michael Mann talks ‘Public Enemies’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 1:34 pm · May 18th, 2009
Maybe I’m slow on the uptake here, but I had no idea Johnny Depp has been circling the role of John Dillinger for 20 years now. Chalk it up to one more reason to be chomping at the bit in anticipation of this summer’s “Public Enemies” from director Michael Mann. In this San Francisco Chronicle […]
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5/12 Web Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:02 am · May 12th, 2009
• Alex Billington takes a few snaps of upcoming release poster artwork in Cannes (including “Shutter Island” and “A Christmas Carol”), then, the web being what it is, he slaps his watermark all over them. [First Showing] • Kevin Costner keeps the western’s light flickering with an upcoming A&E mini-series. [The Hollywood Reporter] • The […]
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WEEKLY WRAP: Loving ‘Trek,’ reading ‘Chéri,’ awaiting ‘Basterds’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:00 pm · May 8th, 2009
• In a bumper season for the sci-fi genre, Kris was thoroughly impressed by both “Star Trek” and the lower-profile “Moon.” • Meanwhile, we kicked off this year’s Page to Screen series with a look at the literary origins of “Chéri’.” • In a sad week for the business, we bade farewell to both actor […]
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Is Bale slacking?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:42 am · May 7th, 2009
The first evaluations of “Terminator Salvation” are slowly creeping in (here’s AICN’s reasonably positive take if you’re interested), but I was more interested in something the Film Experience’s Nathaniel Rogers had to say about Christian Bale’s performance, which mirrors a grievance I’ve had with the actor’s work of late. Rogers likes the film well enough, […]
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Bale puts a bow on THAT rant
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:15 pm · May 1st, 2009
From an interview with Christian Bale in the new issue of Total Film: I’m not making any excuses, but there is an essential trust and it’s not a tacit one, which is every sound guy says, ‘We are not only not recording, we are not even listening.’ So, well, there goes that. I just don’t […]
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Shouting match
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:27 am · April 21st, 2009
I can’t be the only one who read the news that David O. Russell will be directing Christian Bale in his next film and thought, “Uh-oh.”
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New ‘Public Enemies’ trailer
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 12:52 pm · April 9th, 2009
Last month the first materials for Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, finally hit the net. At the time I thought the trailer (and certainly the poster) had something of a sheen to it, a high-gloss studio vibe that didn’t say “Mann” to me. Well this new trailer is a bit […]
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Why the public should never be allowed to vote for anything
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:07 am · March 31st, 2009
Except maybe the occasional president. And, okay, a reality-TV contest or two. But film awards — no. As spectacularly wrong as organizations like the Academy, and the odd critics’ groups, can get it sometimes, nobody can rival the collective movie-going public for sheer cluelessness when it comes to determining the best of the art form. […]
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On ‘Public Enemies’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:12 am · March 11th, 2009
During our week away, materials landed for one of my own most anticipated films of the year: Michael Mann’s “Public Enemies.” I haven’t taken a moment to really dig in to this yet, but here goes… The first thought I had when I saw the trailer was that this is the most un-Mann tease I’ve […]
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Christian Bale vs. Peter Griffin
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:56 am · February 18th, 2009
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…
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