Another Bad Michael Mann Movie?

Has Michael Mann lost his cinematic mojo?

Many, including myself, thought 2015’s “Blackhat,” the last movie he released, was a one-off, but, based on a recent test screening of his upcoming “Ferrari,” maybe it wasn’t.

Last week, there was an L.A. test screening for “Ferrari”, and the few reactions that I gathered haven’t been good. Here’s one of them:

For a subject with a wide range of compelling stories, this was the longest two-hour film I've seen in a while that had virtually nothing to say. The script is sloppy and focuses more on the love triangle between Enzo, his mistress (Shailene Woodley) and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz) than the race they’re trying to win to prevent Ferrari from going under. Adam Driver's performance is very similar to that in Gucci- stoic and very little depth to the character, though the same can be said for everyone else, who has nothing to work with. It needs something to give it more energy and make the audience care, and there is a race sequence in the third act that tries to do that, but overall it is very hollow and easily forgettable.

Whether it’s good or bad, it wont matter much to Venice who have supposedly invited Mann’s movie for competition. The DP of “Ferrari” is also none other than David Fincher regular Erik Messerschmidt.

The film is being shopped around as we speak, it still has no US distribution, and a few images were released in February, no doubt to build up some buzz on this film. It cost around $90 million to produce. It’s a risk-taking endeavour.

“Ferrari” is said to be epic in scope, recounting a single year (1957) in the life of Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) and his wife Laura (Penelope Cruz). Mann’s film comes with very high expectations, not to mention it’s been a passion project percolating for a few decades now.

Mann, who is 80, will probably shoot a sequel to his 1995 classic “Heat” next year. He’s a world class filmmaker with such classics as, the aforementioned, “Heat,” “Collateral,” “The Insider” and “Thief.”